


The Abyssal King

by SpookyBearGhost



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Alien ocean, Consentacles, Europa (moon), F/M, Future, Improvised Sex Toys, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, Tentacle Monsters, Tentacle Sex, Tentacles, Underwater, Worldbuilding, Xenolinguistics, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2018-12-04 20:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11563041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookyBearGhost/pseuds/SpookyBearGhost
Summary: An expedition to Europa is about to land, and an alien forced from his home has nowhere to go.





	1. Journey's Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DemonessKneesocks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonessKneesocks/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For clarity's sake, the "kings" and "queens" are specific morphological forms of the alien's race that allow them to mate and reproduce. Only a handful from a generation randomly become kings and queens, and the social implications are different for each town.

Ik'thrym ruminated on his current situation. He began his metamorphosis a full two cycles early, and the rules of his clan forbade him from staying in the settlement. Given that he hadn't fully finished his studies of the surrounding clan's settlements, while not strictly necessary, he was practically jetting blind. He knew of other settlements nearby to his home, but since they all in such close proximity, their displays were near identical. Although this let him know he was in friendly depths, it did little to soothe his loneliness, as because he had became a king, he wasn't allowed within settlements already hosting one. Even if he tried, the settlement's defenders would quickly and forcefully remove him from the premises. 

Currently, Ik'thrym was resting on a rock, relaxing and letting his tentacles wave in the current. If he focused just right, he could change his skin to resemble the kelp, allowing for careless fish to wander a pinch too close. Quickly, one of the hunter king's tentacles lashed out in a brilliant flash, and soon he had a fresh meal delivered directly into his beak. A bit bonier than the ones closer to home, but still something to eat. 

As he looked out over the cliff's edge, he saw other kings making their pilgrimage to their waiting queens. Some had political alliances set up, some trading warriors for food, in the form of volcanic vent roasted algae and fish. Some traded raw materials to be fitted on tentacles for weapons and tools. Others didn't have a marriage set up, but knew where they could jet to in order to find a suitable queen. Ik'thrym on the other hand, knew next to nothing. Begrudgingly he lifted himself from his roost, and again began to jet into the unknown.

* * *

Kayla was fidgeting. It had been a long trek on the solar sailing vessel she inhabited, and it was in the final stage of the first mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. It had been nearly a year since the departure, and given the scale of the mission, the team back home had decided that sleeping would not be part of the journey. With shared sleeping quarters, cramped work spaces, and complete surveillance of the ship. Relief of any personal desires had to be dismissed. Besides, the air scrubbers on the ship worked for carbon dioxide, not the smell of sex. Even without constant surveillance from home, if she tried something, the small crew on the sail would immediately know.

Following the sail was the vessel used for the return trip, much larger and bulkier to hold any samples that are collected. propelled by ion thrusters utilizing solar power, the ship could travel functionally forever. Outside of the sample containment were fully self contained medical rooms in case of exopathogen exposure. Since the Ferry didn't need the highest tech available, it used an older lead alloy hull, in order to block the radiation thrown off my Jupiter.

As the Sail and Ferry began their descent into orbit of Europa, they began the lengthy process of pinging the moon with a barrage of surface and subsurface scans in order to find a landing zone that is both stable, and hosts the most potential research sampling opportunities. While the Ships' AI took control of the scanning process, the crew began preparations for departure to the moon's surface. Portable life support, inflatable habitat, sampling containers, return capsure, exosuits. Enough checklists to last a lifetime. 

* * *

Ik'thrym had been jetting around aimlessly, tracing the line of the cliff separating the shallows from the depths. Every once in a while a foreign feeling blast propagated through the water. Ik'thrym shrugged his mantle, writing the feeling off to some cryojet over the surface, or the crust crumbling, as it does during some times of the cycle. Though, come to think of it, the shifting wasn't supposed to happen this early. Oh well, Ik'thrym's search of a queen had gone nowhere in the shallows, so perhaps the depths were a better place to look. What Ik'thrym hadn't considered was the mix of marine snow and inky blackness that soaked the abyssal plane. Ik'thrym wasn't familiar with the depth-dwellers' language, as it was more gesture based than his home's language specializing in color expression.

In the distance, Ik'thrym saw dim splashes of yellow-green light nestled in the darkness. Curious, surely no light could penetrate this black veil. Jetting forward to investigate, King found himself in a cloud of wondrous stars, floating aimlessly around him. Though beautiful, the lights constricted his vision, limiting his view of the already murky depths. Just as he reached to touch one of the specks of light, the stars darted, flashed, then vanished, leaving him dazed. Suddenly a new, more bulky form appeared. Ik'thrym, in his confusion, raised his arms and tentacles into a defensive posture, the spiked ornaments fitted to his arms drawn to bear, an angry claw, ready to deflect and return any attack.

The new figure, seemingly unphased by this foreign intruder, began to glow with the eerie light the stars had, its thick arms twisting quickly into geometric shapes, flashing between three symbols repeatedly. Ik'thrym recognized it as a warning verse, along the lines of telling a trespasser to get out immediately. Ik'thrym quickly lowered his arms and tentacles, quickly forming a flared ring around himself, while attempting to show his colors as concentric rings of white and black in an attempt to defuse the situation. 

Realizing this intruder didn't know even a pinch of the depth's dialect, the shadow shifted one of his tentacles, bringing a ball of glowing mud to its front. The warrior changed his gestures from the sharp angular depth speech to the wavy relaxed form of the shallow dwellers. Although the depth dweller had less control over his chromatophores, he was still able to dimly pose a question to this intruder king.

"What is your purpose here?" Gesticulated the depth dweller.

"Looking for queen. Lost. Kingdom called too soon. Exiled" responded Ik'thrym, lazily moving his arms, with messy colorings. Clearly he was dejected in his failure to achieve his calling.

"No queens here," gestured the warrior towards the inky depths. "only death. Any that venture beyond the lights never return. The queenless may reside in our outpost for the resting of the lights, but upon rekindling, he must depart."

Ik'thrym winced when the warrior said "the queenless." A sharp reminder that he had failed in his life's one purpose. A spark of curiousity hit King. "How did you spot me in this dark?"

The depth dweller flashed a deep red and wiggled seemingly without purpose, for a moment. After settling back down, he translated roughly.

"unique," A tentacle curved up to his eyes. Ik'thrym hadn't noticed how huge they were. Massive black domes that were easily three times as large as his own, even accounting for the warriors overall greater body size. "no light constriction. Lights other than these," now gesturing towards the gently glowing abyssal soil, "blind me. Clan placed me here to watch over the Edge of Light, to prevent those too foolhardy or...lost, from being taken by the dark."

The two turned from the ink stained abyss, and began the long jet back to the depth dweller's outpost.

* * *

In low orbit above Europa, the science team double and triple checked all of their systems, before decoupling the lander and slowly drifting downward, guided by jets of compressed nitrogen to land as safely as possible. The ship AI debriefed the landing team about the site. It was chosen as it was within a trekable distance from icey geyser, the ice scanned was found to have little in the way of stress fracturing, and the seafloor below was almost entirely flat, so that a stray tidal shift wouldnt upheave the ice below.

As the lander began the final descent, the lander began to vibrate through the thin atmosphere. The harnesses used were set up in a standing position to save room, with a saddle between the legs, and straps across the chest. For the rest of the crew, two men and an android proxy for the AI, the jostling was annoying at best, and uncomfortable at worst. For Kayla it was a terrible and great reminder of her neglected pussy. for an all too brief moment, she bathed in the feeling radiating through her body. Just as she was about to peak right into her skintight landing suit, the craft gently came in contact with the ice, ceasing the most action she had felt in 10 months. Hell, if she knew it was going to be this hard she'd have smuggled in a bullet to keep her company. 

A sharp hydraulic hiss broke her out of her trance. The belts were released, and the inflatable habitat began to grow. Bunks, a mess hall, an airlock, even a modest common room began to take shape, but there was no time for relaxing. The landing crew had to take inventory to make sure everything survived the landing. At least now they had some semblance of gravity without that dizzying spin all day.

* * *

Ik'thrym and the Watcher returned to the outpost, more a pile of rocks with a cavity in the center, the abyssal snow falling abnormally hard for this part of the cycle, another curiosity following the strange blasts felt earlier. The Watcher reached into his body, just under his mantle, and produced a small glob of glowing sediment, which he then stuck to the wall of his meager abode as he slipped inside. King followed suit, gently pulling himself inside. 

The inner cavity was much larger seeming than the outside, dimly lit by the glowing sediment all around. The ceiling held a slab of ice, astonishing sight considering how far up the sky was from here.

Seemingly reading Ik'thrym's mind, the Watcher explained. "long habitation. ice delivered by royal drones. Necessary to keep food."

The simple words of the watcher severely downplayed the feat of retrieving ice from the sky--then somehow keeping it frozen at this depth. Ik'thrym inquired, gesturing downward flowing waves with his tentacles, which then sharply stiffened into the hexagonal form of frozen water, all the while shifting his chromatophores from blue to a sharp white, finishing off with a small twist of the mantle, the suggest curiosity. 

The Watcher, obviously tired and annoyed from this inexperienced hunter in his home, stiffened his mantle for a moment, then relaxed it as he took in a deep breath, jetting it out slowly, but with enough force to kick up some of the dust on the floor. "Unknown. Spell of royal family. guarded secret. Deep ice powerful trading tool." The Watcher turned to one of the many glowing balls in the home, before turning back to Ik'thrym. "Rest now. Ration in morning. Then depart." Without turning his head, the Watcher tapped a tentacle on each of the lights, dropping the home into blackness.

* * *

As the final pieces of the inflatable habitat took shape, the silence of the Europan surface pierced the air. Kayla was chosen for the mission as an expert in subterranean and aquatic ecosystems. Commander Song, the leader of the mission, was a geologist with keen understanding of glacial shifting, and as such was brought on to path find the surface of the moon so that no pitfall accidents would occur. Hawke, the final human member of the team, joined the team as chief engineer and roboticist. Bartholomew, the ship AI, was given a rugged body that vaguely mimicked the human form, but as he was built out of similar parts as those using an manufacturing, there was no way to mistake him for human. 

The team got suited in skin tight nanoweave compression suits that pressurized, insulated, and protected from Jupiter's radioactive bath. stepping from the airlock, a stunning vista revealed itself. Ivory cliffs extended into the distance, mixed with rolling moraines, crisscrossed with cinnamon fractures. In the far distance, a geyser of ice exploding into the starry back sky. Turning back to look behind the habitat, the looming giant Jupiter hung over them, giving the feeling of standing upside down over a pit of quicksand. The human crew, after looKing for a moment, faced away before becoming overwhelmed by an upside down stomach. 

The faint atmosphere couldn't carry sound as well as on earth, but what it did carry were ghostly wisps of cracking and shifting ice, with a deep breath coming from the distant geyser. All around, tiny ice shards fell, most likely from the skyward plume down the canyon. 

After admiring the view for a few moments, the crew got to work. Hawke and the bot rounded the rear of the habitat to check for any unseen damage, and to check on the tread-wheeled rover. Song and Kayla took a short trip the cliff's edge, taKing small samples of the cinnamon colored dust clinging to the ice, as well as scooping up some of the ice shards falling from the geyser. Hawke found the rover to be in mostly worKing order, however the bot pointed out that one of the treads had a nearly indetectable stress tear. While not a mission ending mechanical error, it would take a few hours to fix.

Song and Kayla decided it best to collect a few samples, marKing the locations of them with the aid of the return orbiter. They couldn't set up the drill drone without the aid of the rover, so after filling all of the small kits they could carry on their person, they returned to the habitat, going through the lengthy process of washing and sanitizing to reduce the risk of alien infections. Although it was practically just a long day of waiting, the humans on the team were exhausted from the sheer excitement of actually being, after months of waiting, on the surface of the most important moon in the solar system.

* * *

Ik'thrym and the Watcher left the outpost shortly after the rekindling of the soil, grabbing modestly sized three footed crabs from the ground for food on the way to the royal temple. Ascending the cliff's edge, the temple slowly came into view, lurKing in twilight between shallow and deep, its pinnacle seemingly piercing the icy sky. It was lined with faintly glowing blue spots. Ik'thrym figured they were related to the wild stars shining off the edge of the cliff. The watcher, with his inky eyes, delivered Ik'thrym to the steps leading to his royalty, leaving him to ascend the light on his own. 

Reaching to top, Ik'thrym found a massive and heavily decorated court, with shining baubles of gold and silver, with the skulls of massive beasts hanging from the roof. Clearly, this royal family was powerful, more than just politically. A small royal attendant, half the size of Ik'thrym, tip toed up to him. 

"What is this king doing in a claimed court?" The attendant acted as if he were much larger than he was. If they were all like this, its no wonder the Watcher lived so far from his capital.

"Lost, found by outpost Watcher, directed here for insight," Responded Ik'thrym. "and looking for queen to pair with"

The attendant flashed iridescently while his mantle quivered, clearly finding this explanation humorous. "Queens claimed! pairing festival ended many nights ago. Where have you been?" The little thing asked. Moving on before Ik'thrym had a chance to respond, he continued. "As for insights, our Watcher has brought you to the right place. Follow me, but if you brandish those weapons you have on your tips, the guard will be alerted and you will be torn to shreds before you could even raise a tentacle."

Ik'thrym looked to the ceiling, now noticing that it was perforated with hundreds of tiny holes, no doubt filled with lashers-tiny and ferocious pests that were more likely to eat your food stores than do you any harm, but with these numbers he wouldn't even make it to the door, he knew this much. He'd heard of some using them as guards before, but not to this degree.

The attendant brought Ik'thrym to a stone which looked out of place. Too smooth, he thought, which was then deftly shifted by the little thing. Behind, a light so bright he recoiled. Then, a flash of cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing something for fun, and certainly the first time posting any writing publically. Don't worry too much about the details of our alien buddy, his body will be described before anything major happens to him.
> 
> This story is going to have a lot of plot before it gets to the fun stuff, but it WILL have fun stuff. I've written a few chapters ahead, and will be posting them about once a week. Keep an eye out for them! Enjoy!


	2. Ice Conjuring 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kayla has fun with some malfunctioning equipment, Ik'thrym harnesses an unknown power.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" the figure inside the hole flailed. "I could have killed you! Learn to announce yourself!" relaxing for a moment before looking at Ik'thrym. "Who are you? Don't answer. I don't care." 

Ik'thrym deflated a bit after reading that from the odd figure within the glowing room. As Ik'thrym's eyes adjusted to the light in this hidden hole, he shortly observed the dweller within, some of his legs ending far too soon. One of his tentacles completely missing. Six of his eyes were glazed over, and two others were completely gouged out. And perhaps strangest of all, a disc of ice on the floor beneath him, slowly melting back. 

The royal attendant, clearly embarrassed at almost getting the guest killed, flattened himself and slinked away before he could receive any more berating. 

The Stranger turned his primary eyes back to his task, though some of the milky eyes on the rear kept looking at Ik'thrym. "Get to it. What do you want."

Ik'thrym flashed a striped pattern to try to defuse the situation. "Delivered by Watcher off cliff leading to dark. Escorted here, dropped at the steps, attendant directed here for insight."

"Insight?" The Stranger twisted to look at Ik'thrym with his primary eyes. "Why should I give you anything? You show up here, to an occupied court, a wayward king, from the shallows by the look of it, to ask for something as vague as insight? I should spear you for wasting my time."

Ik'thrym plunged into a deep, almost black red. "I'm going back to the Darkness."

The Stranger whipped around so quickly his appendages nearly knocked a pile of scrolls off the slab of rock he was working on. Flailing quickly, he gestured "Why didn't you tell me earlier? Don't answer that. You need preparation!" The stranger turned back to his slab, frantically digging through shells and scrolls and various shining objects before picking up a rather sharp pin of gold. Grasping the thing with his singular tentacle, he jabbed it into one of his frosted eyes, quivering for a moment. Then, before Ik'thrym could react, the stranger deftly jabbed it into his body, just under his mantle. 

An icy burning crackled through Ik'thrym's veins, his skin contorting, flashing colors beyond his control, eyes darting around the room, the lights growing brighter and hotter-and then, nothing.

* * *

Hawke practically sprinted out of the airlock into the common room, the bot trudging slowly behind. "Barty and I got the rover fixed up! We're good to go!"

The speakers in the habitat piped up. "Bartholomew."

"What? Oh relax tinhead it's a nickname" Hawke spoke directionlessly into the room.

"I'm not made of tin! I don't have a head!" the speakers replied.

"Yeah whatever _Bartholomew_ ," Hawke turned his attention to the impatient people sitting in the room. "So we're good to get rolling toward that geyser and get our probe sent down! Whenever you're ready." 

Commander Song could barely maintain his professional composure. "So what are we waiting for? Let's get going. Hawke, Bartholomew, you're coming with to make sure everything runs smoothly. Kayla, you stay here and start getting the lab equipment and sample collection units ready." 

Kayla perked up at the thought of having the place to herself for a couple hours while the rest of the team was off doing engineering junk. Since the AI would be completely focused on his body, she could even blast some of her favorite tunes while she worked! "Yes sir! Everything will be set up and ready to go by the time you get back."

The engineering team set off and Kayla got to work organizing the lab equipment. All the biochemicals remained safely in their jugs, thankfully enough. A few of glassware items had broken in transit, but losses were accounted for and extras were packed before the launch from Earth's moon. The jostling had messed up the internal lenses of the microscopes, leading her to have to crack them open to tighten all the screws that had been loosened and place all the lenses back into the right spots. Annoying, but it had to be done for any useful data to come out of them. Next she brought out the heating plates, powered them for a moment to make sure they still hit their intended temperature, then unplugged them and set them aside. Next up were the lab stands and clamps, None too bent out of shape, springs in the clamps were still incredibly strong. 

She received a message on her GPS unit. [ _This is CMDR Song, we've reached the optimal drilling point. Nothing breaking the path out here, so it should take us roughly the same time to get back, plus the time to set up the drill. Song out._ ]

They had just made it? She was almost done. Looks like she'd be able to kick back after sorting the lab utensils and troubleshooting the automated stirring units. She pulled the trays and utensils out of their crates, placing the utensils into their designated trays, then slipped the trays into the shelving below the lab table. Lastly was the magnetic stirring units. The first of the two worked perfectly. It ran through its testing cycle, ramping from 100 rpm to 2000 rpm. Great! Now to the second one.

She powered the unit and started its testing cycle, but the thing started buzzing. It should have been silent. She touched it for a moment, about to pick it up, when she felt the vibrations coming from the thing. She remembered yesterday on the lander. How close she had gotten. A devious thought sprang into her mind. She quickly organized the rest of the equipment and sampling units, then stole the malfunctioning unit and a pair of extra clamps and practically sprinted to her bunk. She checked the time on the Commander's message. By her count, she had about thirty minutes with this thing before they got back. Practically salivating, she shut the door to her bunk and threw off her lab coat. She looked down at her nanoweave suit, it wasn't supposed to come off. Even if it did she'd need help getting it back on, which is not something she was willing to explain to the Commander. It was meant to dissipate body fluids, so she figured her wetness would go with it. 

She pulled her bench from the wall, straight in the middle of the room. Next, she plugged in the defective unit in, placed it on the bench, and turned on the testing cycle. Her heart beating like a jackhammer, her breath shallow, she straddled the bench with the machine under her, and slowly lowered herself onto it.

She managed to place herself right at the peak of its rpm, a surge of pleasure shocKing its way through her like a lightning bolt. She gasped, pulling herself away for a moment to catch her breath. She waited for the thing to slow back down before sitting on it again. This time, a playful buzzing emanated from her new toy. She felt her core start to get hot with arousal, her pussy getting more wet by the second. The skin suit she wore betrayed her erect nipples to the world. As her toy slowly began to speed back up, she reached down to the clamps she had collected earlier, carefully pinching her chest with them, slowly releasing them, letting them pinch harder and harder, the vibrations turning the pain into pleasure. The machine ramped up once more, driving the breath out of kayla, her strength vanishing as she fell onto her elbows on the bench. The shift had shifted her clit into almost direct contact with the machine. It kept ramping up, indifferent to the torture it was inflicting on the horny scientist. As the machine reached its peak, an earth shattering orgasm erupted from Kayla. Her legs tensing so hard that she swore she would shatter the bench under her. Her eyes as wide as they could reach, her muscles hard as stone, a breathless scream trying to force its way out of her to no avail. She reached to her chest with one of her hands, forcing the clamps to pinch even harder as her ceaseless orgasm continued. Finally her breath escaped, a low and primal shriek, loud enough to hurt even her own ears, crushed its way out of her throat. The machine had now begun to slow its vibrations, Kayla catching her breath, gasping for the stale air in her room. She finally pulled her body up, weak and shaking arms pushing her up from the bench. Looking at her clock, she found that the engineers would be back soon. Very soon. How had time passed so fast? She went to stand to get cleaned up before they arrived, but her legs refused to cooperate, collapsing back onto the machine, right as its next cycle ramped up. She gasped again, they would be back any minute now. This time the machine wasn't as merciful on her sensitive clit, screaming to life under her, bringing her back to her peak in mere moments. Kayla collapsed back to her elbows, gasping for as much air as she could. the machine buzzing seemingly faster and harder than before, a second orgasm coming, heat rising, pressure building as her arms gave out further, falling onto her chest, forcing the clamps even tighter on her breasts, she finally exploded, nearly crying at the pleasure rocking through her body. The team would be back in minutes. She managed to slip off her makeshift sex toy, lying on the bench panting. When her legs regained purchase, she lifted her limp body off the bench, looking down to the machine, the thing covered in a puddle of her lust. Upon further inspection, her suit was drenched too--practically dripping with wetness. She reached down to her pussy, and felt how hot and wet she was, sighing in relief at her first release in almost a year. Suddenly, she heard the depressurization of the airlock. They're here. Shit. She practically dove into her lab coat, buttoned it down to cover her drenched core, then slipped out into the common room, locking the door behind her back.

"Everything all set Kayla?" Commander Song said as he peeled himself out of his exosuit.

"Uh...yeah. Just about everything is set, the microscopes needed some calibration, and one of the magnetic mixers was out of whack so I tried to get in it and get it back into working order but couldn't quite center the magnet. I'll take another crack at it tomorrow morning. I assume you got the probe up and running?"

"Yeah. We think it'll take a few hours to punch through, you should get some shuteye so you can be alert for when the data starts coming back." Commander song responded. "And you really should leave the repair to Hawke, he is the engineer on the trip after all."

"Hawke? With lab equipment? I'd take a sledge hammer to the equipment before involving him." She responded, laughing. "Anyway, I'm off for a nap. See you in a bit Commander."

As Kayla turned back toward her bunk, and her stomach dropped. Following her from her room was a trail of tiny droplets. She strategically mopped up her mess with her feet, and hoped that no one would notice the shimmering smear across the habitat's floor. Once in her room, she hid her new toy under her bunk, moved her bench back to the wall, and laid down for the best sleep she'd had in months.

* * *

Ik'thrym awoke with a start, darting away from the ground, eyes frantic to see where he was. Still in that madman's lab by the looks of it. He looked at his tentacles, burning hot. This didn't make any sense. Why are they covered in ice? More memories returned. The Stranger's eyes, the spike, the jab. His rear eyes saw movement, he turned to look.

The Stranger was perched in the corner studying the king with his working eyes. "You lived! Congratulations."

"I could have died?" Ik'thrym was rather upset with this answer. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You already had a deathwish wanting to go back to the Dark, I figured you'd be ok with it," The Stranger shrugged his one tentacle. "You live, we go to phase two"

The Stranger slipped off his perch, falling to the floor with a plop, like a dropped algae bun, before quickly returning to his legs. "First things first, we gotta make sure you don't turn yourself into a tentacle-icicle...tentacicicle...tentacicle..." The stranger trailed off while tapping his head with his arm, consumed in thought. 

Ik'thrym slapped his oddly frozen arms in front of him, snapping him out of his thoughts. Flakes of ice floated to the top of the room. 

"RIGHT!" The Stranger flailed, whipping up dust from around the room. He turned back to his desk, rifling through scrolls and loose pages, muttering to himself. "Ah hA!" He slapped his arm down on the desk, turning back to Ik'thrym. "I don't know why I was looking for the answer because I never wrote it down." He touched his arm to his head with a flicking motion, rolling his eyes. "The conjuring is mmmmmostly physiological. I can't explain the rest, because I don't understand it- _YET!_ " 

Ik'thrym was simply floating there, watching this crazed thing talk, gazing at him blankly. More ice flakes floated off of him. 

"You're going to have override your arm's ganglia."

Ik'thrym returned more of a blank stare.

"Your arm brains! This is introductory physiology! Did they not teach that up in the shallows?" The Stranger was getting a little impatient.

"I've been trained as a hunter since my first metamorphosis." Ik'thrym responded, holding one of his bony hook tipped tentacles into view. "My kind left the thinking to the royal attendants."

The Stranger, with a new sense of urgency, sighed. "Ok. Crash course. Your brain doesn't control all your arms and tentacles. Too many muscles. Each one has a small bundle of nerves that help micromanage movement. Your main brain, the brain that you are, sends what you want to do to those little brains, then they issue all the tiny commands that make your arms do what you want them to do. Got it?"

"I'm with you so far." Ik'thrym replied.

"Good. As a hunter you already have an acute ability to bypass these ganglia. You think past them to force your tentacles to do precisely what you want them to. Alright?" The Stranger didn't wait for a response, continuing, "Right now your ganglia are forcing your skin to excrete a chemical that reacts in a violent endothermic reaction. That's why you feel so hot even though you're surrounded by ice." The Stranger finally relaxed, mantle pulsing as he gasped for breath.

"Ok," responded Ik'thrym, finally able to fit a word in, "I get what you're getting at, so I'll just have to focus like i'm hunting, but...on my skin?" Ik'thrym held his two icy tentacles up to his primary eyes, willing himself to hunt. His skin, burning hotter than ever as he directly linked to his claws. The raging ice reaching up toward his body, skin screaming in pain. Ik'thrym was searching his skin, trying to find the key to stop the floe. Getting closer, he found the RNA he needed to manipulate, the ice about to take both his tentacles, just a moment longer...and THERE. Found his skin in his mind, willed off the madman's chemicals, and with great strength, sloughed off the cocoon of ice imprisoning his arms. As the shroud of ice lifted, he saw the Stranger staring at him like one would inspect an unpalatable meal.

"Well then! Most impressive. Most people that make it that far go insane. Whatever they teach you up in the shallows worked. I should get more subjects from up there..." The Stranger began to trail off again before coming back to his senses. "With time you'll gain more control of this gift. You may even be able to get rid of those barbaric metal claws you've got on. Anyway, you're not my problem anymore, you got what you came for, I got what you came for, everyone wins."

"What did you get out of this?" Ik'thrym inquired, wary of what the answer might be.

"After I stuck you and you were laying on the ground I stole some of your blood. You're a very fit individual, our brood would do well with your influence." The stranger moved forward, a few arms outstretched, pushing King out of the lab. "Hurry up and get out of here before our king gets back. I would hate to see all my hard work as a gory puddle on the floor"

Needing no more encouragement, Ik'thrym jetted back out of the court swiftly, and began back into the open ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post early since I'm currently two chapters ahead, and wasn't satisfied with letting chapter one be lonely. Chapter three will be posted as soon as five is done.


	3. The Titan

Drifting slowly the inky abyss that he had so narrowly avoided before, Ik'thrym took a moment to turn back to look at the temple he had just left. At this distance, the tower's structure was simply a shadow, the lights lining the ascent still shining through the murk, the peak seemingly touching the sky. 

The water shifted, pushing Ik'thrym backward. Thousands of black darts speeding through the water toward the temple. Following the darts, dozens of jet black warriors and hunters with eyes as white as the sky above. A titan quaking along the sea floor, tentacles and arms so long they vanished into the depths, eyes massive enough that could swallow any other whole, it continued, skin pocked and gouged with a lifetime of conflict, indifferent to Ik'thrym as if he were no more than a mote of dust.

A bright light ascended from the base of the cliff, a warning signal from the Watcher's hut. A skin piercing crack ripped through the water, to which several of the temple's guardian gargantuans encircled the city, linking arms and tentacles, and a ring of ice grew out of them, slowly encapsulating the settlement in a dome. The Ice wasn't fast enough to stop all of the darts and hunters, however, as they slipped in to the top of the dome before it sealed completely. The Titan to the side of Ik'thrym lifted a titanic tentacle from the seafloor, pointing to a location on the dome, darkened from the city's gargantuan behind. Just as the tentacle came to rest, the Titan took in enough water to nearly suck Ik'thrym into its looming mantle, then compressed it, bellowing with its massive body, sending a massive shockwave through the ocean, throwing Ik'thrym far into the distance. The legion of feral beasts swarmed to the location the Titan pointed to, slamming and chipping away at the icy shield. 

As the sounds of the shield cracking echoed through the open ocean, the Titan began to inhale once more, nearly sucking Ik'thrym into his massive body. Just as he was about to be taken, he saw what looked to be an infected bite, white cracks emanating from it, pulsing. In the center, a glint of gold. Ik'thrym took one of his tentacles and touched under his own mantle, feeling the same spot as the the Titan. He felt it. It was the same place the Stranger stuck him with his infernal needle. He had little time to think about this before he noticed the Titan reverberating. Quickly, as if without thinkng, Ik'thrym encapsulated himself in a thick icy shield just as the Titan bellowed once more. Within the capsule, Ik'thrym felt the momentum as he was shot through the water, before coming to a stop. As his shell fell open, he reoriented himself, looking back to the city. The attack of the beasts seemed to have worked, swarms of feral monsters trying to squeeze through a pinhole. At the top of the dome, an opening formed and several figures emerged, they didn't seem to have the veracity of the beasts attempting to rip their way in. They sat for a moment, as if sizing up the attack, then, they began to rain down a hail of metal spikes onto the pinhole, picking off individuals from the feral horde.

The Titan took notice to this, and began to shift his mass to point to these new threats. Ik'Thrym saw this and sprung to action, jetting to the front of the massive beast. He lunged at the eyes of the thing with the hunting claws he was outfitted with, but they barely scratched the surface. The focus of the Titan shifted from the dome to Ik'thrym, its massive irises focusing down to a pinpoint directly in front of him. 

_seems I got its attention_ Ik'thrym thought to himself. Before he could make his next move, a maddening whine emanated from the thing. A cloud of lashers ripped out of its mantle, swarming Ik'thrym and latching to his flesh, trying to shred him to ribbons. Just as his vision was about to be blacked out by the swarm, a disk of ice whirled in, cutting through the lashers like a knife through an undercooked algae bun. A heartbeat after, three icy spears flashed through, impaling several of the lashers each, pinning them to the flesh of the Titan. Ik'thrym looked back, and none other than the Stranger was floating there, flakes of ice floating off his tentacle. The Titan took notice of this new pest, and let loose another salvo of lashers, focused on the stranger. 

The Stranger, looking to Ik'thrym, flashed a set of warning colors, and jetting to the side of the Titan, disappearing behind its bulk. The cloud of lashers now set on the Stranger, Ik'thrym had a moment to check the dome, and found it to have shrunk back in size, feral beasts being forced out. The army was routed, but the commanding Titan remained. Seeing his army crumble, the Titan sent a chilling sound, as if the sky itself were cracking open. With renewed purpose, the beasts returned to defend their leader, a cloud of shredding claws and gnashing beaks. They enshrouded the Titan as he let out bone shattering screech, knocking up dust from the unseen depths, a smoke screen that blocked all light.

In a feeble attempt to outswim the rising darkness, Ik'thrym jetted directly vertically, the dust overtaking him. He was unsure of how close to the sky he was, he continued, the water gradually getting colder. Normally anyone who got this high into the sky began to freeze and and fall back down. Unceremoniously, Ik'thrym hit the sky with a splat, freezing momentarily to the ice. While peeling himself off, he noticed a strange noise, not unlike the cracking of the city's dome. But this was different. It was coming from within the sky itself. He felt it more on his right tentacles, jetting a few meters that way, then touching the sky again. This time, He felt it more toward the abyss. Again he jetted that direction, again he felt the ice. He eventually landed on the point where the grinding noise was loudest, and having found himself out of the dust cloud, looked into the sky, and past the thick shell of the sky, he saw a strange object on the outside. Nothing had come from the outside before. He backed off the ice, the thing cracking and grinding before bursting through.

This thing from beyond the sky swam like a fish, but it had a body of metal. A single black eye in the center of its head, with more eyes within, like a cascading iris. Below the strange eye, a luminesce, white as ice, brighter than anything Ik'thrym had seen before. As the odd metal fish began to swim, its bright light swept through the water. He observed the strange thing from a safe distance, avoiding its cold light. Evidently the metal creature knew where he was, as it clumsily attempted to catch him within the light. The few times it passed by a limb didn't seem to hurt, and the creature didn't seem to be hostile. Ik'thrym slowed his maneuvers and allowed it to look at him. Its strange eye morphed and changed shape, making an unnerving sound Ik'thrym had never heard before. It lacked any arms or tentacles with which to communicate with, so testing its intelligence might be difficult. If it could control its light, perhaps they could communicate through colors or flashes. Ik'thrym moved to the center of the metal thing's light, positioned as a dish, arms splayed out, and flashed a simple message of peace. A quick white, black, white, black sequence. Astonishingly, the thing flashed its light back! 

The two mimicked the other's message for a while, until Ik'thrym noticed movement with his rear eyes. Turning around to see what it was and a deep and dull growl emanated from the dust. The metal being looked of Ik'thrym, and began to swim around to get a better look at the disturbance. Ik'thrym tried to warn it with a flash of bright red and black, but it didn't seem to respond, instead continuing towards the dust. It began to flash its light again, illuminating the edge of the cloud, briefly revealing a storm of lashers and feral beasts schooling. Clearly the Titan hadn't lost his rage, and with the the metal beast trespassing in his darkness, he was filled with renewed hatred. The plume of dust diminished in size, briefly revealing the abyssal monster, then, with a mighty bellow, released its horde on the metal intruder, ripping it to shreds in an instant.

Ik'thrym quickly splayed out on the sky, turning himself a pale white to match the ice, contorting his skin to match the rough surface. As the guts of the metal fish fell into the darkness, the creatures strange eye sank, with a metal tether leading back up its burrow from the sky. Its luminesce sank, the light from it dying, clouded by lashers. Another dull thrum reverberated from the dust, and a legion of lashers, bloodthirsty warriors and hunters raced up the metal fish's burrow, chasing its tether. What if the things mother was up there? Ik'thrym couldn't let any more of these novel creatures die to the feral beasts. He slipped to the entrance of the burrow, sliding inside, sealing the ice with his skin on the way up. He was about to go where none of his kin had gone before: above the sky.

* * *

The feed from the probe went dead. The crew stood still, staring at the static on the monitor. They had expected rudimentary life near seafloor vents, algae, microbial colonies at most. Instead, a seemingly intelligent creature communicating with color, and a mass of what looked to be eels schooling around a undersea tower. 

"We need to go back to the drill," Commander Song said, breaking the silence. "We gotta pull up whatever is left of our probe to pull the black box, if its even still in there."

"Are we not going to talk about what we just saw?" Kayla interjected, "We just found complex life, potentially /intelligent/ complex life, and we're just going to glaze over it?" 

"We have to, we only brought one probe. We didn't expect any sort of animals to tear it apart. Theres years, maybe even a decade worth of research in that black box. We can contemplate the existential nature of this expedition after we have our data." Song moved to start gearing up for the retrieval mission.

Hawke was still staring at the monitors, dumbfounded at the static. His baby, that he worked on for years before the trip even started, was shredded to scrap in moments after contact with the ocean. The thing was meant to last for months under the water. He researched ways to increase efficiency of power distribution, mobility, recording. All of it was gone in minutes after the probe broke through.

Hawke finally spoke. "Thank fuck I put the black box on the drill instead of on the probe, I guess. Lets get going before any more colossal fuck ups happen."

Hawke and Kayla got their exosuits ready, while the bot strolled outside to prepare the rover. Once everyone was suited up, emergency supplies accounted for, and quantum computer fitted to the rover, the team set out to the drill.

* * *

Ik'thrym chased the swarm up the burrow into the sky, being sure to seal it after him, a wake of ice following him. The burrow seemed to be far too direct, too straight. Nevertheless, he had to stop these monsters from attacking whatever was on the other side of the sky. If they were as defenseless as the metal fish was, they wouldn't stand a chance.

* * *

The crew pulled up to the drill tower, the ice geyser howling, and looming over them. Astonishingly, water was coming out onto the surface, when it should have been frozen from the top, plugging it. How would it freeze downward? 

"I don't like this, lets grab the data and get the hell out of here" Song said, after a moment's observation of the upwell of water.

Hawke moved to the box as the base of the drill crane, placing the quantum computer next to it, pulling several wires from them, intertwining them in metal wiring. 

* * *

Ik'thrym noticed the weight of the water decreasing significantly. However far he had been chasing these mongrels, they were almost to the other side of the sky. The lashers had made it out of sight, and the feral hunters and warriors were barely outpacing him. He had no idea what to expect, all he knew is that he would have to improvise battle, and soon.

* * *

The computer was sucking as much data as it could out of the black box, as fast as it could. It was approaching completion as the water started to more aggressively jet out of the borehole. 

As soon as the ejection of water increased, Commander Song belted out orders. "Bartholomew, get the rover into position, I want to be out of here as soon as that box is done uploading. Kayla, grab anything else we're going to need from this site and get it strapped in. Hawke, how long until we're ready to go?"

"we're at 95%, nearly there..." Hawke trailed off while unplugging vestigial wiring. "There! Got it. Lets get the fuck out of here" he hurried back to the rover, taking the longest strides he could allowed by the gravity of the moon.

As soon as everyone's straps were locked, the AI launched the rover as fast as it could away from the borehole. Just as the treads gained traction, a final bout of water exploded from the hole, followed by a cloud of black eels and what looked like thick octopus, heads ringed with eyes. First, two slender and long ones, followed by a massive and bulky one. a few moments later, a fourth one, looking like the slender ones that emerged first, exploded out of the hole, sailing through the air, leaving a trail of ice behind. 

"JESUS FUCK GO GO GO" Hawke screamed, holding tight to his harness and kicking at the eels launching themselves at his feet. The treads of the rover spun as it accelerated, spraying ocean water into the air, creating a misty cloud. The eels that were closer to the rover were flung out from the outwash coming from the treads, ripping them apart and flinging black gore over the pristine ice. The two slender octopus things burst out of the mist, chasing the rover, using their tentacles as 4 legs, rather than 8, they charged and galloped over the icy crags with ease, slowly catching up to the fleeing crew. Behind the running ones, the bulkier one lurked, slinking behind, patient. The eel swarm was swimming in the tread trails left by the rover, desperately trying to catch up. In the furthest back, the last octopus thing stood calmly, observing.

* * *

Ik'thrym stood in awe of what he saw. Standing on top of the sky...another sky. Black as the abyss with pins of light, and some...indescribable orb, devouring the view of this new sky. A sharp pain brought him back to reality. A lasher, attempting to burrow into his mantle. Ik'Thrym flailed, ripping the creature from his flesh, a trail of blood staining the sky beneath his legs. looking up, he saw the mass of feral beasts chasing another metal creature along the surface. It seemed to emit a protective spray, but it seemed ineffective against the horde. 

The lashers and the two feral hunters took off across the ice, their legs paired off, giving the hunters the appearance of only have four of appendages. They sprinted across the landscape, jumping over crags in the ice, dodging slabs of ice tossed up by the metal creature. Lurking in the mist was a feral warrior, much less nimble than his cousins, slowly plodding through the mists towards his prey.

Ik'Thrym attempted to engage his jet to take off, but with nothing to push off of, he merely sprayed some sea water left over in his mantle. Alright, legs it is! He'd known the abyssal crabs to be quite speedy on occasion, so he replicated their movements. Each tentacle took two arms, entwining together to create two forelegs. the remaining 6 arms braided into a strong rear leg. He methodically maneuvered his body over his rear braided legs, then flexed and extended them, propelling him a rather surprising distance through the air. Sailing over the battlefield, Ik'Thrym bypassed the warrior, and began descending almost directly on top of the slower of the two hunters. As he fell, he brought his metal claws to bear, plunging them into the head of his prey. It collapsed to the ice in a sickening crunch, attempting to pitifully continue its hunt, but instead squirming pathetically on the ground.

The next hunter caught Ik'Thrym in his rear eyes, came to a halt and turned, sliding for a distance, before pouncing at Ik'Thrym, raging towards him. Though he didn't have metal claws outfitted, his feral nature made him more than dangerous enough to end Ik'Thrym's life. The beast lunged, tentacles forward, each with a sharp bone claw at the tip, ripping through Ik'Thryms mantle easily. Ik'Thrym's metal outfitted claws were quick to return the favor, jabbing the feral beast's primary eyes, causing them to burst out of its leathery hide. The thing shrieked in pain, flying into a rage, whipping its tentacles in front of itself in a wide arc. It would be impossible for Ik'thrym to get anywhere near without being flayed into shreds. He dove into the water left behind by the metal beast, and forged two icy spears, then used his jet to escape into the air. As he lept over the blind beast, he loosed the icicles, one ripping through several of its arms, severing them, the other piercing the center of its head, pinning it to the ice, black blood staining the ground under it.

The lashers had mostly been accounted for by the metal beasts feet, ripped apart and strewn about the icy canyon. That just left the massive warrior behind. Ik'Thrym noticed movement behind him, but just as he turned to face the beast, he took a massive, bone-encrusted tentacle to the face, sending him across the ice, knocked out, before sliding to a halt. 

* * *

"That's the smart one! Look at his claws!" Kayla practically jumped out of her seat in the rover to the strange creature laying on the ice before her. 

"Kayla!" Song joined her on the ice, unsteadily sliding to a halt, freezing in place as the massive, ten foot tall, bone covered octopus beast lumbered towards them, each tentacle and arm easier thicker than Song's entire body.

Kayla gently patted the side of the smaller octopus' head, being sure to avoid the ring of eyes encircling it. Though it had no eyelids to indicate consciousness, its many eyes reoriented into what seemed to be a focused view.

* * *

Ik'Thrym awoke suddenly, a strange new creature looming over him. Its face was strange, its beak within its body and only two eyes! After a moment looking into his eyes, the creature lifted itself, moving one of its arms in the direction away from the metal beast. Ik'Thrym noticed movement on his lateral eyes, and turned to face the warrior advancing on their position. Ik'Thrym picked himself up wearily, then willed an armor of ice along his head and arms. If he would take another hit like the previous, the ice would take some of the force of it. Still dazed, he circled around the massive monster to get behind it, forcing it to turn to face him. Standing in a pool of water, he conjured razors of ice before flicking them toward its eyes. Most bounced off the beasts boney hide, one hit it directly in one of its massive primary eyes, shredding through it. Howling with indignation, it gripped its eye, ripping it out, tossing it to the side, and began barreling towards Ik'thrym. The ground quaked as the massive beast stampeded, letting out another scream as it leapt to grab Ik'Thrym. He managed to slip to the side just in time, and the warrior slammed into the ground. Ik'Thrym jumped onto the goliath's back, plunged his clawed tentacles into the beast's eyes, then through them, directly into its heart, then froze it solid. The monster collapsed to the ground, defeated. Ik'Thrym's tentacles slipped from the corpse of the monster, slammed into the ground, and once again lost consciousness.


	4. A Study in Extraterrestrial Cephalopoda

The crew stood still on the ice, speechless at the spectacle they had witnessed. Kayla was the first to step forward to the strange alien that had helped them. She knelt down, putting her hand to his head. His eyes were once more unfocused. She turned on her exosuit's helmet flashlight, and saw his irises contract. With no known way to check for a pulse, it was her best idea at checking if he was alive.

"I think it's still alive, we should take it back to the habitat and patch him up," Kayla turned to the Commander, continuing. "we can come back for the rest of these things. Help me pick it up"

Song wordlessly agreed, and moved to help Kayla pick the alien up. It slipped in their hands, flipping over to reveal a massive gash along the side of its head, opening to another skin underneath, much like the mantles on Earthling cephalopods. It was bleeding profusely, but luckily the battle that had taken place ended just a few minutes away from the habitat. They slung him into the rear seats of the rover and took off for home. 

Along the way, Kayla removed the rover's field servicing kit and began looking for something to stem the tide of blood oozing from this creature. After digging through tools and extinguishers and spare nuts and bolts, she found temporary rubber sealant. With one hand she pulled the two tags of flesh together, then used the sealant as glue stitching to minimize blood loss. As the creature's head was the size of Kayla's torso, it took nearly the entire kit to get the flesh to stick together. It wasn't stitches, but she hoped that it would keep the creature alive long enough to get proper medical care.

The rover hastily slid up to the airlock of the habitat, the seconds for depressurization feeling like hours. Hawke grabbed his black box, Kayla and Song grabbed the alien and brought it inside. Bartholomew's body took the rover to its charging bay while simultaneously unlocking and deploying the medbay. They placed the creature within, closed the glass covering, and allowed Bartholomew place the creature in, what would be for humans, stasis. A battery of scans took place, each illuminating the creature in different ways. After several moments, Bartholomew spoke through the habitat's speakers. 

"Your patching job seems to have worked, Kayla. His heart rate is steady, though it does seem to be low for a creature this size. Its hard to judge how much blood he should have, but I think he should be able to make a recovery with time."

"He?" Kayla inquired, still gazing into the medbay.

"Yes. He has a structure that appears to be analogous to a male squid's penis. Ergo, Male." The AI responded, the delivery of the sentence would have been humorous if there weren't a dying alien in their habitat.

"So what do we do now?" Song inquired to the team.

Hawke was the first to speak up. "The bay is air tight as is, I'm sure with a bit of quick modification I can get it to be water tight too. Since we'll be leaving early I think we would be safe pumping some of our drinking water in there to get him back under pressure. We just have to make sure to sterilize it to make sure we don't infect him with something from earth."

"That seems like a plausible course of action," Bartholomew echoed into the habitat. "I will search our manifest for tools that could help. I'll be back in a moment." 

With tensions lowering, Kayla took a deep breath, and finally remembered what had caused this creature to fall into their lap in the first place. "Commander, what do you say we go collect the cadavers our new friend made for us? We can keep them outside to preserve them before we send them up to the return shuttle."

Song looked to Kayla, arms crossed. His eyes dropped in thought for a moment. "I suppose it will take Hawke and Bartholomew some time to get the modifications set up for the bay. Let's go." He took a step before continuing, "Make sure you grab some tow cables and the sled too. We're not gonna be able to lift that huge one without the crane."

They marvelled at the carnage that had been unleashed along their drive. Eels splattered along the canyon's walls, a mountainous beast, frozen nearly solid, laid to the side of the path. They passed it by for now, as it was the closest to the habitat. Finally the two smaller beasts came into view. The closer of the two remained impaled on the shard of ice, hanging a meter over the ground. The next was hard to see, given the sea of blood that had drained from it, now frozen solid. 

With shovels in hand, the two picked away at the bloodied ice, picking the creatures up and setting them in the rear of the rover. Buckets served as vials for the frozen blood, the two trying to keep as much water ice out as possible. In another container, several of the eels were collected, and though difficult, a few were still completely intact, frozen solid. At least preservation was somewhat taken care of, hopefully the ice hadn't done too much damage to their internal structures. On the return trip to the habitat, they stopped to hook up the massive beast to the rover, lifting it slightly to place onto a tragically small sled. Still, it did the work, and after a little slipping, the treads took root and began to move the freight forward, although at an incredibly slow pace. 

By the time they reached the habitat, the sun was setting in the distance. Though it offered no warmth, it did allow for higher morale and the ability to work outside without headlamps. Song and Kayla took the cadavers out of the rover, and heaved the massive beast to the side of the airlock entrance, where it would be accessible later. After walking inside and decontaminating, they found Hawke putting the finishing touches on the medbay modification.

"Hey!" Hawke greeted the returning crew. "You've made it just in time to fill this puppy with water! Bart already sanitized it three times and filtered it twice, so unless this guy is allergic to miniscule amounts of earthly minerals we should be in business." Hawke turned a valve on a repurposed electrical wire tube, starting a flow of water into the pod. The creature's vitals continued to ping on the integrated EKG, unchanged by the introduction of the water.

Bartholomew spoke through the habitats speakers. "You all should get some rest. It's been a very long day for you, and I'm sure you could do with rest. I'll continue to monitor the patient overnight, and I'll wake you if anything happens."

With the action of the day at a breaking point, the crew realized just how exhausted they all were. They all said their goodnights, and headed off to their rooms, the doors hissing quietly as the atmospheres equalized. Kayla decided it would help to play with her toy again before drifting off, but as she was about to finish, her mind was filled with images of the strange creature lying outside...

* * *

Bartholomew did everything within his power in order to aid the alien. He scanned the corpses outside, took DNA samples from them, looked at their internal organ structures. For the most part, all of their internals were analogous to earth based cephalopods. An underlying process in the AI's mind posed inquiry at the fact that these creatures had DNA to begin with. He backed up and saved that thought for later. By comparing the dead beasts with the living one, Bartholomew gathered approximately what his patient should look like, although blood pressure and heart rate were still a mystery, at least he could patch up his outer structure. Thankfully in his battle only his mantle had been destroyed. If the blow causing the gash had landed much further in, it's likely his brain would be severely injured. 

The Medbay whirred to life, draining slightly to allow the automated machinery to do its work on the creature. In a blur, tiny arms whizzed across the surface of the creature, quickly bringing the flaps of flesh together with barely visible stitches. Next an applicator filled with siphoned stem cells from the outside beast's blood was applied to the cut, then just after an intense red light slowly passed over, setting the cells into place, and accelerating their differentiation into new flesh cells for the patient. The process wasn't perfect by any means, but it stabilized him and put all his body parts back where they were supposed to be. Next, an automated IV found large blood vessel that was close enough to the surface to access, and began to slowly drip a saline solution. Nutrients were added based on the compounds present in the outside cadavers. By the time the procedure had finished, there was only a few hours left for Bartholomew to defrag and clear stray data that had built up over the course of the day. He recorded a progress report for the morning, and went to sleep.

* * *

The crew woke to their first night on Europa. Three and a half days of night, three and a half days of light. They had landed just as the sun rose on the icy moon, and in a strange way, they events that had transpired went along with their original plan. First day was set up, inventory, and troubleshooting, the second was for drill set up and surface sample collection, and the third was for data recovery and analysis. Except instead of analysing the chemical composition of deep sea vents and scrounging for organic matter in the abyssal snow, they rescued a complex and intelligent alien and escaped death from three others. The First night on europa was to be almost pure data analysis, as even the temp dropped even further when the sun wasn't in the sky. As such, the suits couldn't even insulate at such temperatures. 

Kayla was the second one out of her bunk. Song was up first, legs kicked back, a cup of tea in one hand, and a tablet with the latest news from earth. patience was required out here, as it took about two hours for signals to get back and forth from Europa. Thankfully the late '50s NASA had set up a massive network of communications satellites to allow for constant communication for the mars colony with no dead zones. 

"Good morning sir," Kayla said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "any updates on our new crewmate?"

"Mornin' Kayla. Bart did a whole bunch of overclocking last night getting him patched up. He's stitched and mended, and getting an IV drip of basic nutrients to get him back on his feet...tentacles." Song turned back to his tablet and took a sip of tea. "He's still in stasis now but I think today we should attempt to set up a habitation for him. He may have been temporarily able to survive on the surface, but I doubt he could have taken much more, even without his fighting. After Bartholomew wakes up I'm gonna see if its feasible to set up something for him. I doubt he'd want to wake up in that tube." 

Kayla merely stared at the commander, had a big yawn, Then turned to grab some coffee. If that were the case for the day, there was no hurry to get to work. After grabbing her coffee, she strolled to the medbay and gazed in. His eyes were a pale yellow. Two in the front were much longer than the others, which ringed around his head. He didn't have the shape of more earthly cephalopods. Instead of a flat wedge of a squid, or the weighty head of an octopus, he had a head reminiscent of a cathedral's dome, with ridges between the eyes, that reached to the top of his head ending in a spike. The spike, the ridges, and the ring of eyes gave the appearance of a strange biological crown. She estimated the diameter of his head was around 16 inches, with his largest eyes being a diameter of 4 inches, the smallest around one inch. It made sense to her, in a way. In a massive three dimensional environment, it would make sense to have panoramic vision. At the back of his head, a small hole, which was likely analogous to an Earth-bound cephalopod's siphon. Between the ridges of his crown was the loose flesh of his mantle. That was easy enough to differentiate due to the massive gash that she had patched up early yesterday. Curious that a creature would develop a structure on top of their mantle in such a way that impedes it. The only explanation Kalya could think of was that it was defensive in nature and more helpful to have the crown than to not have it.

Her inspection moved down to his arms and tentacles. The arms looked nearly identical to those found back on earth, though instead of having circular suckers on them, they had a mess of raised ridges, like those of a fingerprint. They were around four feet long, and only had a diameter of about 3 inches at their base. They didn't reduce into sharp points, rather they rounded off and were tipped with small bony spikes that was curved inward. The tentacles were much different however. They had short boney ridges running down the length of them, with the thickness of Kayla's upper arms at the base, about five feet long, tapering down before terminating with what looked like the beak of a predatory bird, a singular claw hooked at the end. It likely made grasping on to larger prey easier, as well as tearing it apart. After all, she had seen what he could do with them just yesterday. The part that intrigued her the most however, was the metal fixed to his hooks. It showed signs of wear and tear, as well as ornate carvings. Clearly this species had the ability to metalwork, as well as a society advanced enough to appreciate artistry.

He appeared to have the skin color changing adaptation that many cephalopods had back on earth, an trick displayed when he interacted with the probe. There was only so much inspection she could do with the creature behind the glass. She was antsy for Bartholomew to finish sleeping so they could get to work building him a suitable enclosure. Hopefully they had the spare materials to do it. Perhaps something on the orbiter could help.

The next few hours were uneventful. Hawke wandered out of his bunk about an hour after Kayla did, Song checked the todo list, and Kayla kept staring at the alien. She wanted to go and inspect the cadavers lying outside, but the Europan night was far too cold for anything more than a few minutes. 

Just after waking, Bartholomew sent a ping to the communications crew of the orbiter. Though to say it was a crew was an exaggeration. It was simply one radio operator, and a copy of Bartholomew with a slightly tweaked personality, giving it the self identity of a woman, rather than that of a man. Her name was Priscilla, and the human on board was Cassandra. As the return vessel was heavier overall, it couldn't utilize the solar sails that the lander could, instead using a combination of chemical and ionic thrusters to travel. The center, where the fuel was stored, was little more than a long cylinder. At the front was the cockpit and command station, and in the center, a ring orbited, offering artificial gravity. Compared to the landing craft, it was a mansion. Cassie had convinced mission control that after such a long trip out, recreation would be needed to maintain mental health on the way back. In addition to luxurious beds, there was a rec room, with a large television, a comfy couch, and a huge selection of movies, shows, games, even a small simulacrum that could emulate various locations back on earth, complete with warm wind and artificially generated smells. On the opposing side, a gym containing a battery of exercise equipment. The engineers even managed to fit a pool for doing laps inside the structure. Opposite the bunks was the hydroponic farm, simultaneously making food, recycling waste, and generating oxygen. 

Cassie had been taking a nap after doing laps in the pool when the notification from the surface reached her. Strange, they still another two weeks before they were supposed to ping. Hopefully nothing bad had happened. She turned to her bedside monitor, showing an alert, but not an emergency. That was relieving at least. She climbed up to the center of the wheel, and floated over to the bridge, and put on her headset.

"Priscilla, any idea what's going on?" She asked while reading the data spit out by the ping. The AI to AI communications were incredibly complicated, but being constantly being exposed to it gave her somewhat of an ability to read it. She knew enough to know that the packet didn't contain any urgent emergency information, but couldn't tease out the details.

Priscillas voice echoed through the ship. "It seems they want to open a line of communication to discuss a change in mission protocols. No immediate emergency, however. Deploying the comm array."

Cassie's headset crackled at the connection was made. "Orbiter responding. Everything okay down there?"

Song's voice was distorted from the radioactive interference. "Everything is alright, we're thinking of radically changing the mission however. We're going to need a drop with some of the spare habitat materials. We uh...we found an alien."

Cassie's mouth hung open for a moment before she collected herself to respond. "You mean like, some microbes? Algae? Something resembling a worm?"

"More like a 6 foot long intelligent cephalopod." Song responded tersely. "He's in stasis right now, but we want to wake him up somewhere he'll have room to move around. He's going to need some food too. Once he's situated we're going to try to have Bartholomew figure out of he has a high level of sentience and maybe see if he can be automatically translated. That may be a stretch, but I don't believe it would be ethical to just steal him from his planet without asking."

Cassie just stared out of the cockpit window, Jupiter looming overhead, Europa below. Priscilla broke Cass out of her stupor, suddenly speaking. "Cass, we both have to approve the tether deployment, I can't do it on my own." 

If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn that Priscilla was simply another person living in the orbiter with her given the way she spoke. "Alright, let's send it down." She lifted a small glass plate to her left, and flipped the switch underneath. Hydraulic hisses shimmered through the ship as the massive cord was released from the craft, gently floating downward towards the moon's surface.

A few tedious minutes later, the head of the tether landed just a few meters outside, with drilling pins that pushed into the ice to fix it in place. Then, a rather large container filled with building materials crawled down the tether, with Priscilla's own robot body on top, to guide it. It was near identical in form to Bartholomew's, though it was painted white, rather than being painted black.

A faint jostling was felt within the habitat as the drills fixed themselves to the ice. Since the temperature outside was too low for humans to help, Bartholomew entered his body and left to help Priscilla set up the additional habitat. As the bots worked outside, the human crew moved the pod to the wall where the new section would be set up. It would have a massive aquarium, filled with melted ice from outside. It would be reinforced on the edges so that if needed, it could be elevated to the orbiter. Outside the massive tank was very barebones, but it was only separated from the primary habitat by a curtain so any furniture could be moved in from the common room. 

The creature was removed from the medbay, and set into the aquarium as it was being filled with water. Kayla's grip slipped on the alien's tentacles, leading to one of the metal gauntlets cutting through her nanoweave skinsuit, causing a thin incision on her wrist. She winced in pain, and after setting the creature in the water, looked to her arm to find that the suit had already repaired itself. She pushed it to the back of her mind. Pulled in a chair from the outside room, sat, and read one of the books she had brought along with her. 

Priscilla's body ascended back up the tether with the excess materials. She also brought back the cadavers that were left behind, to be stored and researched on the return trip. Bartholomew set his body into the recharging station, and Hawke and Song retired to their bunks. Kayla opted to stay up and monitor the alien overnight. Besides, she didn't want him to wake up alone and in a strange place.


	5. Sufficiently Advanced Science

Kayla was three chapters into her book when a deep itching started on her arm. Such disturbances were commonplace, always wearing a bodysuit, but this one lingered a bit too long. She remembered the scratch she had gotten earlier, but she had taken broad spectrum antibiotics after, so surely this couldn't be some infection. She looked up at the clock, 3 hours after bunk time. It shouldn't be too long until the stasis fully wears off on the creature in the room in front of her. She gazed at it, its tentacles drifting in the current caused by the filters. Its eyes were still unfocused, gazing in every direction at once. Her arm continued to itch, almost getting worse as time went by. Since the material could fuse back together, she had taken to cutting it herself to get to annoyances, like an unreachable itch or to relieve herself. She hated using the built in waste management sequences. She went into the common room, switching on a lamp near the lab bench. She pulled out one of the drawers, finding a pair of scissors. She then carefully slipped one of the blades under the suit, and began to cut it back, making sure to keep the two flaps separated so they wouldn't fuse back together. 

What she found startled her. The source of her itching was the scratch, but it wasn't infected. Along the line of the incision was a patch of dark coloration, with tendrils spreading from it. For a moment she became frightened at what it might be, and it changed to a pale white color. This change almost immediately overwrote her fear with curiosity. How could that have happened? Quickly, she pulled out a small scalpel, held ice to her skin to quickly numb it, then flayed a bit of the skin off where the color met her ordinary skin. She staged it on a glass slide, and positioned it under the microscope, the bright underlighting nearly blinding her in the darkness. 

She set her eye to the scope, fiddling with the focus until her sample came into view. The ordinary skin looked healthy, but as she shifted the staging towards the strange colored skin to find it flush with small rings. Very small. A thought occurred to her and she rushed back to her tablet and pulled up a textbook on marine biology, flipping to the section on cephalopods. She looked at a closeup of their skin. Chromatophores. They were nearly identical to what were forming in her arm.

"Holy shit." She said, staring at the text. "What the fuck." She hurried back to the microscope to make sure she was seeing everything right. Looking into the scope, at the textbook, into the scope, back to the text book. She heard a tapping noise behind her, she turned, and saw that the creature inside was awake. Looking at her. Its hooked tentacle dropping to a relaxed state. She cautiously walked over to the tank, tablet still in hand. 

She stood a foot from the glass, eyes wide, staring into the creatures eyes. She raised the arm with the skin mutation on it to wave hello. It changed colors slightly and jumped a bit, then did the same wave back. She looked down to her tablet, holding it on her forearms, and thinking to herself " _how the hell am I supposed to talk to this thing..._ " she noticed while thinking, the cut on her arm changed colors in time with the thoughts. Not quite exactly, but close, as if an approximation. " _I wonder if this is how they communicate_ "

She looked back up at the creature, it still gazing back to her. She raised the affected arm, and thought very clearly.

"Hello." Her arm flourished with color.

The creature looked at her arm, his irises constricting. A color washing over him. Surprise and excitement. How did she know that? "Can you understand me?" She made sure to keep her arm up. Again, the creature flashed back. This time she felt confusion and disappointment. Evidently only emotions were conveyed through color. She contemplated for a moment. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out" After speaking she lowered her arm. The alien responded once more. Determination. Kayla was glad he felt the same, as odd as the situation was.

Kayla turned to grab her chair, brought it to where she was standing, and sitting, idly chewed her fingernails while staring at her tablet. How the hell was she supposed to translate an entire language that evidently had two components?

* * *

Ik'Thrym gazed at this odd creature before him, behind its thin warm ice. It was trying so desperately so hard to communicate with him. He could see it in its coloring, which it seemed unfamiliar with. She expressed confusion and interest in him, but its reverberations were foreign to him. He watched as it put a flat object in front of the ice, one of its arms folded into its beak. Somehow it knew some of what he was trying to tell it. How could that have happened? By all means they were nothing alike. He started thinking about his journey thus far. The Watcher, the Titan, the feral beasts, himself. They all had one thing in common, and that was the Stranger. He reached up under his mantle where he had been jabbed by the madman, and felt a sting. Suddenly, like a blast of crushing ice, he had an idea. Maybe the technique used by the stranger could tie him to this oddity outside. Now he just needed to find a way to communicate this using only his skin. 

He looked to his tentacles, touching the tip of one of his metal claws to the warm ice before him. Ice crawled from the point of contact, spreading out, obscuring the view. Then he removed his claw from the surface, and began to scratch at it, creating a basic picture of what the jab looked like, or at least what he thought it would look like. He tapped on the surface to get the outside creature's attention. It looked at his inscription, and its arm flashed with excitement, but then confusion. To clarify, he rotated himself, and lifted his mantle covering the point of impact, the gold needle glimmering in the shadows.

* * *

Kayla looked into this creatures eyes as it showed her something that resembled a primitive medical procedure, at least from what she could eke out of his drawing on the side of the tank. She looked back more carefully at the pictogram, trying to figure out what it meant. She raised her arm and thought of confusion, still looking at the drawing. It repositioned itself, behind its sheet of ice, and tapped on the drawings in a sequence. The first, two figures in a cave of some sort. Then, one of the figures with an arm bent into itself, then into the other. Based on the details, the one that had bent an arm into itself wasn't this one, as it very distinctly didn't have all of its arms. After this was the dismembered figure off to the side, with the other spread out, something floating from its tentacles. There the sequence stopped, so she looked back around the sheet of ice, and pointed to the last pictogram. 

It looked to where she was pointing, then reached outward with its arms, and somehow grew ice along them, small crystals floating to the top of the tank. She looked back to the sequence of drawings, and considered that perhaps he wasn't born with this ability. Something gave it to him. But how?

Apparently it had noticed her confusion, and wiped the clean, removing the pictograms. She watched, fascinated, as it scratched a new set into the frost. His figure appeared again, then a straight line, then another figure. One with two legs and two arms. It was her. Okay, now what? She nodded to him to confirm she was still with him. Next was his figure, arm bent back into itself, then seemingly pulling something out from his head. Finally, it reached through the sheet, into her.

She raised her wrist to show her colored skin, and thought deeply of fear and doubt. She quickly turned and grabbed her tablet off of the seat, pulling up a built in drawing program. She drew a basic version of the room's setup, with the glass wall, with the water, then finally him and her. She pointed to the pane of glass while showing him the picture, raised her wrist, and thought of what it would do, namely flood the room she was standing in. Then, she pointed upward, to the top of the aquarium, then illustrated another picture, with him outside of the water. Evidently he could do without water for some time from earlier experience, so it seemed like an ok idea, other than the obvious hesitation of letting a 300 pound alien octopus of questionable origin out of its cage. 

Still, with the emotional communication they had, she felt like she could trust him, somehow, at least. She held up her wrist once more, signalled "patience" and quickly left the room. She returned, holding a stepladder, and set it up to the side of the room. Bartholomew must have set up a way to access the inside of the tank, it wouldn't make sense to do otherwise. She ran her fingers along the seam between the ceiling and the tank, just barely feeling an indentation a few inches away from the wall. She gently pushed on it, and a section of the roof pushed away, giving an opening into the tank. She looked down at the alien, then pointed to the opening. With remarkable dexterity, it dashed up to the ceiling, and squeezed through the hole. 

" _God I hope I'm not making a mistake_ " she thought as the beast flopped out. Her heart was pounding. The thrill of pushing the limits of human understanding. Discovery. Coming face to face with an alien intelligence. She half caught it as it gracefully slipped from the access hole, knocking her down and landing on top of her. She flashed embarrassment at it, as did the alien. They slinked away from each other, standing, looking into eachothers eyes. A mutual curiosity.

* * *

Ik'Thrym plucked the golden shard from his head, and held it before the creature before him. It nodded, and held out the arm with chromatophores on it. He inspected the needle closely to ensure that some tissue was on it, before positioning it over its limb. He hesitated. What if it didn't work? What if she wasn't as strong as he when he had been changed? The creatures other arm came to the back of his, gently grasping it. It was so warm. It gently pushed down on the needle, piercing its thin skin. Her muscles flexed, and it started trembling. Just as her standing legs gave out, he swept behind her, grasping her with his many legs, slowly lowering her to the floor. Its eyes were closed. He thought to himself, " _What would happen if the others came to see her like this?_ " Panicking, he slipped outside the curtains, careful to avoid the objects around the strange cave. He saw three rectangular shapes on the wall, perhaps they opened like the stone that shifted in the Depth Dweller's temple?

He slithered up to the one on the right side, slipping his tentacle over it, looking for some way to get it open. There was a small hole being overlapped by something. He pulled it, and it gave, but the wall did not open. Rather than try to break it, he slipped to the next door, found the same contraption, pulled on it, and found that the wall opened up. Peering inside the dark room, he saw a horizontal pad suspended in the air by some structure. Investigating, he moved closer to look at it, and found that it smelled of the creature lying outside. He hurried back out the entrance, back to the room he came from, and scooped the creature up with his spare arms. It was remarkably light for its size, he noted to himself. He brought it back to the chamber he had opened, and set it down on the pad. Then, he removed the needle from it, and slipped it back into his own jab, wincing as it entered. He snuck out of the chamber, closed the door behind him, then ascended back into the tank he had woken up in. Soon, he felt the effects of the strange blood within him. Memories of a light in the sky, blazing and hot, then blankets of green and blue. Sounds he couldn't decipher. finally, he fell asleep.

* * *

Kayla awoke suddenly, her eyes flying open. For her, it was if she hadn't slept at all, she just went from standing in the back room to laying down in her bunk. She tried to piece together what had happened last night. She was talking with the alien...How was she talking to it? The rest of her memories were lost in a haze like a half remembered dream. A deep sea with a glittering tower in the distance. Something about it felt so tangible, but every time she tried to grasp it in her mind it slipped away. She sat up in her bed and looked down at her arms. She remembered another piece of last night, her arm mutating chromatophores. As her memories collected she noted that her mutated skin had grown. It didn't feel any different, but it was at the point where even if her suit were repaired a bit of it would still show. Hiding it from the others probably wouldn't work for very long, so she decided she would be open about it. Well, most of it. Could probably do without mentioning that she freed an alien without regard for the others.

Checking her clock, she found that it wasn't much later than she was supposed to be up on a normal day, she figured that a bit of extra time sleeping when she had opted to stay up with the creature would be excused. She swung herself out of bed, and set out into the common room. Everything seemed completely within the ordinary. Commander Song was enjoying his tea and news, Hawke was tuning up Bartholomew's body. Song mumbled a salutation to Kayla as she walked across the room, but didn't look up to her as she passed. She grabbed her coffee, and slipped into the aquarium room where the alien was being kept.

"Good morning," she said to the tank. She wasn't expecting any response, it was simply habit to greet everyone after she woke up. She sat with her coffee in the chair she had brought into the room last night, and as she took a sip, she saw the stepladder set up in the corner of the room. Her eyes were wide at them, like a lion was suddenly stalking her. What if anyone else had seen it? Surely they had to have known. She was catching her breath after the quick fright when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye in the tank.

"Do not be alarmed" 

Kayla was instantly alarmed. The alien in the tank was somehow speaking to her, but not speaking. He simply flailed his arms quickly. How did she understand it? Evidently the alien recognised her confusion from the colors presenting themselves on her arm, so it gestured again.

"I modified you after you had shown potential for receiving it," He pointed at Kayla's colorful arm. "Honestly, I didn't know what would happen. I'm simply a hunter for my clan, not a metamorphosist. If it's any consolation, I took some of your blood too."

Kayla sat completely still, mouth agape, staring at this creature speaking into her mind. She couldn't yet contemplate the words he was speaking, just was simply in awe of the situation. Her arm betrayed her silence, issuing colors of amazement and curiosity. Slowly, she came back to her senses. She spoke in a hasty yet hushed tone.

"Tell me everything. Biology, history, your name, what those things attacking us were. Just...go!" She leaned forward, staring intently at the creature.

He looked startled at her intensity, then nervously began to speak, his arms sluggishly gesturing.

"My name is Ik'Thrym. I am a hunter from the shallows. I provide food for my clan, but I was chosen for kingship. I didn't get necessary teachings for success in this roll, as I transformed too quickly."

Kayla responded, endlessly curious about this creature. "After you said 'My name is' I didn't hear anything. Is that to be expected?"

"That is strange. Perhaps your mind can't parse my gestures and translate them to your language as you can with more general words. Tell me your name."

"Kayla."

"I read nothing from you either. I saw your beak move, and I felt the vibrations from the ice, but I didn't understand it." Ik'Thrym curled his tentacles momentarily, lost in thought.

Kayle broke the silence. "There's a way we deal with such communication problems back home. Animals, including us, have special names that can be interpreted regardless of language. Perhaps we can reach an amicable agreement? At least until we can manage to learn the others name. I like your crown, will King fit your needs?"

Ik'Thrym wasn't sure what she had meant to say, but what he had heard roughly translated to an offer of courtship. "An adjective, clever. How should I describe you? How are you different than the others in this cave? You all look quite similar to me."

Kayla hadn't quite anticipate such a question, perhaps his species didn't have sexual dimorphism to the degree that humans have. So, she decided to start from the top.

"I am a female of my kind, the two others in the next room are males. In simple terms, one studies the movement of ice, and he leads our crew. The other works with metal to make it do his bidding," She felt silly using such words to describe engineering but she had to make sure her meaning got through to him. "The third is made of metal, but his mind resides throughout the entire...cave. He is not living like you or I, but is a person nevertheless." She continued after a breath. "My study is in that of biology. Living things. I was brought here in the case we found simple life, things like algae or microbes. We were shocked when you and those others came after us. We had no idea such advanced life existed elsewhere in the solar system, but here you are."

Ik'Thrym had a lot to unpack here. Metal conjurors? Scholars of the ice and those of life? Some sort of system with other beings in it? And finally, did she call herself a queen? His heart jumped at the thought, despite barely knowing her at all. Perhaps it was simply his emotions still running high from the disappointment of not finding a queen of his own. Still, it's not like he had anything to lose down there. 

Ik'Thrym responded after a moment of contemplation. "If I am the king, then you shall be queen. If you are as you say a scholar of life itself then you could rule an entire queendom beneath the ice." 

Now it was time for Kayla to be taken aback by the words. There must have been some communication error between them, although she did like the designation of royalty put upon her. Nevertheless, she asked for clarification.

"In your culture, what are kings and queens?"

Ik'Thrym responded gently. "That's a bit of a tricky question. Let me start with how we begin our lives. After hatching from eggs, we are simple, little creatures. From there, based on what we are fed by the royal attendants, the mature into hunters, such as myself. We're agile, slim, and incredibly quick. We're not completely defenseless however," He raised one of his tentacles, showing off the ridge of bony armor running down the back of it, terminating with his trademark metal claws. "Next are the warriors, much larger, much bulkier, much more armored. They're slower than us hunters, but are incredibly strong. That huge beast laying I attacked on the way here is an example of one of them, though he was modified."

"Modified?" Kayla interjected.

"Yes, modified, I'm getting there," Ik'Thrym responded, a pinch annoyed at the interruption. "Moving from there are the royal attendants, which are generally more intelligent than warriors or hunters, but without us they'd be killed by a stray fish while asleep. They're small, and often condescending, but they have their purpose. Those are the typical morphs that appear within the population, at least in my clan in the shallows. Now, on to kings and queens. A number of years after a metamorphosis, a secondary change begins in a small number of the populous. Some become kings, some become queens. In king's cases, such as I, we grow these annoying crowns of bone on top of our mantle. I had heard a scholarly attendant say it was for preservation of the lineage, but I always figured my claws were good enough for that. When I changed into a king, I was given these metal ornaments to help me on my travels, but I was pushed from the clan before I could learn more about how to navigate. Ordinarily all spawn are educated on what to do should kingdom choose them, but I changed two years too early and never learned such things, so I wandered, and I became the lost king." 

Kayla noticed him pause, a hint of sadness showing in his colors. "And the queens?" She urged him to complete his story, a fascinating look into their culture. Shortly after he started speaking she started to type everything he had said for later review.

"Kings often seek queens that have just left their clan, so that they pair and mate, and start a new clan. Sometimes, a court will lose a king, and so kings may attempt to take their place with a gift, or a show of prowess."

Sympathy oozed from Kayla's colored arm. "Did you ever find a queen?" This time, a pout came with her coloration.

Ik'Thrym waited a moment before responding. "No. By the time I had gotten my bearings on the land the time of pairing came to an end, and I was left alone. I met with the Stranger, the one I drew for you last night, with his torn arms and pearly eyes. He modified me. Gave me this...gift, of ice." He held his tentacles infront of himself and coated them in a thin layer of ice before shaking them off.

When he described the queens, Kayla wondered if that's how he saw her, intelligent and empowered. He had hoped a man would one day see her like that, she just didn't expect it to come from an alien from across the solar system. Her skin started to ooze a new color, one that she quickly tried to cover lest the king see it. 

Kayla heard a sound behind her as the sheet hung as a room separator swung to the side. She turned, seeing Commander Song standing in the pathway.

"Who are you talking to?" Song said, before continuing. "It sounded like you're having a pretty in depth conversation. Do you have a comm portal open?"

"Uh..." Kayla wasn't sure how to proceed, so she decided to be straight forward with it. "I was...talking to him." She pointed into the tank at the king. She made it a point to use her arm that had transformed, intentionally leading Song to inquire about it.

"What happened to your arm?" The bait had landed perfectly, and instead of asking more about the fact that she was talking to an alien decipus, Song asked about the colorful glove forming on her skin.

"When we moved him, I was scratched by one of his claws. I didn't get to see the damage it had done since the suit had mended so quickly. I took broad spectrum antibiotics, and moved on, until later on it became _Incredibly_ itchy, so I cut my suit, and this is what I saw. I took a sample, inspected it under the scope. Somehow exposure to him has given me chromatophores in my dermis. Interestingly, they react to emotions. I was able to start talking to King there through surprisingly complex emotions, since somehow I became able to understand his. I made sure to record everything since I scoped my skin sample. Everything is accounted for."

"That...what..." Song's brow furrowed as he pinched his nose trying to make sense of everything. "So how are you speaking to him now?"

"That I don't know." A half lie. She knew what caused it, but not the mechanics of it. "I lose my memory late last night, then I woke up, walked in here, and I could make sense of his language. It's somewhat like sign language. They save space in emotive words by using their chromatophores. There appears to be some miscommunications occasionally, for instance, when telling each other our names, we simply don't understand. For now we've resolved to call each other King and Queen-That was his choice, by the way-until we can properly learn pronouns."

Song took a sip of his tea. "Not that I don't believe you, but do you think we could set up a test just to make sure? Assuming he knows english I could tell him something with you out of the room, then he could relay it to you, then you to me. Sound fair?"

Kayla was somewhat astounded by the simplicity of this conversation, she had expected a lot more accusations of insanity or hallucinations, but with three tentacle monsters chasing them kilometers across an icy moon, she supposed anything was possible. "Ok, just to make sure, we can have Bartholomew play some music out in the common room to make sure I can't here what you say." With that, she looked at the King, nodded, flashed her arm with confidence, and stepped out of the room.

Song stepped up to the glass, looking the creature in the eye. "Can you understand me?" He realized he wouldn't understand it even if it said yes. "Uh...tap the glass a few times if you understand me."

*tap tap tap*

"Ok, then you can understand me. I'm going to tell you a phrase, when Kay- _Queen_ steps back in, I want you to tell her what I told you."

*tap tap tap*

"Got it. Here's the phrase," He got hung up a moment trying to think of an idiom that didn't involve words he wouldn't know. "A year here, a year back. You think you can get that?"

*tap tap tap*

"Alright. I'll go grab her then." Song turned to leave the room, eyes wide, scoffing at the ridiculousness of the situation. 

A few moments later, Kayla walked back into the room, Ik'Thrym relayed the message, then nodded, and started to turn before stopping herself. She went back to the step ladder and opened the access panel, and gestured for him to follow her out into the common room. He slipped out, making sure to at least attempt to dry himself before following her out.

The two of them emerged from the dark room, and Kayla spoke. "A year here, a year back."

"No shit." Song said, hand slipping from his chin in amazement.

Hawke looked up from his maintenance on the bot, wondering what the commotion was. "Hey-what why is he out of the tank? Can he do that?"

Kayla responded. "I invited him out for planning our next phase of this mission. I figured that we could potentially get him back home, should he want to." She paused for a moment to think. "How _are_ you breathing right now?" She turned to Ik'Thrym.

"I've got no idea, honestly. Perhaps your knowledge of life could help" Ik'Thrym gestured.

Before Kayla could translate, Hawke interjected, pointing at the alien. "Is that how he talks?" 

"Uh...yeah, like sign language I guess. And he doesn't know how he's breathing, I think he wants me to look into it. Anyway, what are we thinking. We have enough data for a decade with what we've collected so far, should we call it early and head home?" She turned to Ik'Thrym. "And you King, would you like us to try to get you back home?"

Ik'Thrym contemplated for a moment. How could he go back under the ice after learning so much about what else exists? He'd never see the new sky again. He didn't have anything under there anyway. His clan wouldn't take him back, he didn't know anyone outside of the depth dwellers, and most of all, he would live the rest of his days without a queen. A lonely hermit stuck in a cave scrounging for the odd fish carcass that fell from the water above. Leaving meant never seeing another of his kind again, but that may happen anyway with how everything had turned out. He took the time to ponder, then asked.

"How much of your home is water?"

Kayla was taken aback. "What? Uh, about 70% of the surface, but our planet is orders of magnitude larger than this moon. Why do you ask?"

The color that had been building up while she spoke drained at her final question. "To put it simply...I have no more home. I'm exiled. Even if I returned, no one would believe what I had seen. And how can I go back knowing there's so much more than what I know? Let me come back with you. I can help you study those ferals I killed earlier!" His color turned to a hopeful hue, waiting for Kayla's response.

Kayla turned to the team and explained. "He's in exile. He wants to know if he could come back with us."

Song furrowed his brow in thought. "We have the food to get him back assuming he eats as much as a human of his size does...Lets ask Priscilla, she'll know if it should work." He walked to the table centered in the common space and picked up his tablet, and after a series of taps a familiar robotic voice came from the habitat's speakers.

"Orbiter, everything alright down there?" Priscilla's tone was remarkably good at emulating concern. 

"Song here, we were wondering if we had enough supplies for a plus one on the way back home, assume standard rations."

It took a few moments for priscilla to work it out. "We should have enough calories available if we cut rations by about 250 per day on the return trip. Doesn't seem to bad, does it?"

Hawke was the first to respond. "Well I've been meaning to lose this spare tire anyway," he said while patting his stomach. "The arrangement works for me. When do we want to head out?"

Ik'Thrym was slowly overcome by a subtle purple hue. Kayla was the only one to notice it. She was the only one that could. Fear. Not the fear of the unknown, but the fear of being hunted. He turned to Kayla, and gestured one word. "Soon."

He could feel it through the ground. A pounding, and a bellowing. The Titan was on his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd thought I'd get to the porn sooner than this, but I ended up getting really attached to the characters. Don't worry, itll be there soon(ish)


	6. The Titan's Rage

Evidently the human's couldn't feel it or hear it, given the confusion on the Queen's face. To Ik'Thrym the thundering quakes from below couldn't be mistaken. 

Kayla looked to the alien. "What?"

Hawke piped up before King could start communicating. "Why the confusion? What'd he say?"

Kayla shot daggers at Hawke. "All he said was 'Soon' I was simply asking for clarification on the hurry." She looked expectantly back to King, waiting for his response.

"Those beasts that attacked you? Their master is coming. I met him briefly before his minions followed the hole made by your metal fish. I'd never seen him before, I thought him a myth. A tale told to larvae to keep them from wandering from home." A dark, fearful cover washed over Ik'Thrym. "I can hear his pounding through the ice. It won't take long for him to get up here. We will die if he gets to us before we leave."

His shortness on the matter startled Kayla a moment. "How can you hear him from up here? How big is it?"

Song and Hawke were incredibly confused given the half of the conversation they were hearing. They looked to Kayla expectantly. She didn't notice, as she was still looking towards the alien.

"You see this eye?" He pointed to one of his major eyes. "His is the size of this...structure we're in. Maybe larger. He was so I couldn't see how big he was because his arms and tentacles disappeared into the depths." With that, he became silent, and nodded to the others. Clearly he wanted them to know of the urgency.

Kayla looked up to the two men watching the conversation. "Evidently, the master of those monsters that attacked us a few days ago is coming. Its burrowing through the ice from what I understand, and its massive. Incomprehensibly huge. Apparently one of its eyes is the size of this habitat, maybe even larger."

Song was the first to respond, with a skeptical tone in his voice. "Bartholomew, you catch all that?"

"Yes, sir." the speakers responded.

"Any chance we can get a seismic scan? How could we do that?"

"Just a moment sir" Bartholomew began communications with Priscilla brainstorming a way to test seismic activity on the surface. After a few moments, they proposed a solution. "We can use the tether and its deployment system to roughly measure a level of vibrations in the surface ice. It won't be exact, but a regular pattern of vibrations will tell us if our new friend is telling the truth."

It didn't take an expert to see how irritated Ik'Thrym was getting. Hawke and Song both noticed him tensing up, impatient with how long the process was taking. The thought of the others thinking him lying while they were all in serious danger was annoying too.

After a few minutes, the ice below the habitat began to creak as the tether was pulled tight against the icy surface. After a few minutes of waiting, Bartholomew spoke once more. "There are a series of vibrations that happen every 20 seconds. It leads with a singular, large vibration, then a trail of smaller ones. We don't have other points of data so we can't tell if the source is local or not, but with what little information we have, the alien's assertion is not implausible."

Song pressed the matter. "Ice doesn't vibrate on its own like that. Lets grab-"

Song was interrupted by a deafening crash and a quake strong enough to throw equipment off of the desks. Hawke and Song were both thrown off their feet, Ik'Thrym lowered himself for stability. Kayla slipped backward, but was caught by the alien. With all his limbs occupied he couldn't speak, but Kayla was sure he was blushing a bit.

Song hopped up as soon as the quake was over. "Everyone! Suit up now, we're getting out of here. Hawke, grab the drives. Bartholomew, ready the ascension capsule. Kayla, pack any remaining samples that haven't been sorted yet!"

Another crash, and the floor of the Habitat dropped three feet in an instant. Just after, a deafening howl came from below. The habitat laid at an angle, causing the furniture to start sliding to the side. An alarm blared, and Bartholomew's ordinary voice was overwritten by an emotionless prerecorded message.

"Atmospheric breach of habitat. Evacuate habitat. Atmospheric pressure at .95 bar. Repeat."

Scrambling to his feet after the last quake, Song turned to Hawke. "What the shit is that? Wheres Bart?"

"...pressure at .87 bar. Repeat."

Hawke shouted over the alarms. "It means we're in deep, Bart's been overridden by the emergency broadcast. Hes been backed up on the orbiter. I got all the drives strapped! I'm heading to the airlock to get suited!" He climbed up the floor to reach the airlock, opened it, and crawled inside.

"...pressure at .56 bar. Repeat."

Song then turned to Kayla, still being held by the alien. "Fuck the samples, get to the airlock and suit up!" He looked closer, and saw that Kayla was unconscious. He then looked to King and nodded towards the door to let him know where to go, in case he hadn't seen Hawke. 

"...pressure at .39 bar. Repeat."

Another slam sounded, this time lurching the habitat upward. King slithered up to the airlock, still wrapped around Kayla and pulled himself in.

Song, still recoiling from the thrust, looked down to see water inching its way into the habitat.

"...pressure at .25 bar. Repeat."

Song...sleepy Song. Whats an airlock? Locking air? You can't do that. Air is too wet to keep in a lock. Feet are wet. Water cold. Wat..er...sleeeeep...

"...Pressure at .16 bar. Repeat."

Ik'Thrym pulled himself up the door of the chamber to look out the window into the main habitat, where he saw the other person laying on the ground, eyes closed, unmoving. Turning around, he looked at the metalworker, pointed to his suit, then pointed to Kayla, still laying motionless. He cracked open the door, a hiss of air seeping out. He slipped through the opening, slithering down the crooked floor to the sleeping human. Wrapping his two tentacles around the human's arms, he tugged him away from the rising water. " _Much heavier than Queen_ " he noted to himself. As he was lugging the limp person back to the airlock, he saw emerging from the water two thick dark tentacles. Evidently more of the Titan's warriors were sent ahead this time. With renewed purpose, Ik'Thrym practically threw the human into the chamber, and locked it shut behind him. A few moments later, a pounding and scratching came from the other side. The ferals weren't smart, but they were strong. It wouldn't be too long before they ripped their way in. 

Hawke had gotten Kayla suited, and had Song's suit prepared. They hurried to get him inside of it, quakes shaking the chamber, scratches and thuds coming from the inner door. Hawke's earpiece crackled with static as it came to life.

"Hawke, come in!" It was Cassie! "Please come in no one else is responding!"

"Hawke here, what the hell is going on?" He scrambled to get Song's oxygen tank fixed to his suit.

"The elevator is almost there. Give it thirty seconds before it lands, be there. The ice around you is shattering like dropped glass. GO!" The earpiece cut abruptly and Hawke was left alone once more. He looked at the alien who was doing his best to help get the others into their suits. "I hope to God you can understand me. We have to get outside and onto a platform real soon. You grab Song," He shouted, pointing at his commander, just to make sure the alien understood fully. "I'll grab Kayla, we gotta get across as soon as possible. Got it?"

The Alien flashed his skin white, then back to black, while staring at Hawke. 

"Alright, lets go!" Hawke kicked open to outer door to the airlock, and silence took hold. He looked out over the shattered landscape, the pieces of ice shifting and seething on water below. The piece the tether was attached to wasn't very large, but it seemed to be holding in place. Looking up, he saw a platform descending quickly, lights illuminating the edges. He made a mental note of how fast it was falling, silently counting down. As it approached the ice, Hawke lept out of the airlock, landing on a block of ice that sank on impact. As the chunk recoiled, he launched himself off of it, onto the next, and the next. He climbed aboard the platform, slinging Kayla off his shoulder, careful of her helmet. He turned back to see the alien a few steps behind, and behind him, the habitat, sinking into the ice at an oblique angle. Another roar sounded, rattling the platform. Behind the habitat, an enormous black tentacle reached up, seemingly without end. It had to be the monster the alien was talking about! It slammed down, crushing the habitat under its weight effortlessly. As the habitat was crushed and ripped apart, the alien slinked up onto the platform, and without prompt, it immediately started ascending.

Looking over the edge, Hawke saw a mass of tentacles churning under the ice. Smaller beasts, if one could call them that, skittered around the icebergs searching for their prey. More of the enormous tentacles fissured out between the cracks, exploring onto the more solid ice. They spread out, like a black sun coating the white of the ice. Even from the ascension of the platform, it looked like it was within touching distance. Looking up, the orbiter was coming into view, and the horizon of the moon was made clear. How could such a monster exist? Its mass was beyond comprehension. More and more tentacles poured out of the eviscerated landscape. The center of the mass opened up, revealing the massive amber eye of the beast. The ruins of the the habitat peppered its head, until it roared and twisted its massive body, sending the pieces into the sea like cast aside toys.

The platform lurched. Looking down once more, Hawke saw that a tentacle of the great one had found the base of the tether, and enwrapped it. Thankfully such a tiny structure could slip through its grip, but that luck wouldn’t hold for very long.

"RELEASE THE TETHER! RELEASE IT!" Hawke screamed into his headset.

"If we do that the elevator wont work, you'll be stuck there." Cassie replied, hastily.

"Then release it and punch the thrusters! We can figure out how to get us up after, because as of right now-" The tether was yanked taut, causing sparks to fly off the central mechanism. "If we don't get out of here the orbiter won't STAY IN ORBIT FOR VERY LONG!" The beast below let out another bellowing roar, nearly deafening despite the thin air.

A rippling cascade zipped down the tether, hitting the bottom and popping. The tether was removed from its base, causing it to spring up like a massive rubber band, hurtling the platform through the air. Above, a bright flash burned from the orbiter, and the slack was slowly pulled tight. Hawke looked to the alien, grabbed onto Kayla as tightly as possible, then nodded toward Song. Thankfully he seemed to understand, wrapping up around him and grabbing onto the rails surrounding the platform. The slack was pulled tight, and the platform was ripped behind the orbiter, like a toy behind a speedboat. Despite being pulled tight, the platform didn't seem to move anywhere. A peek over the edge revealed several tentacles wrapped around the end of the tether, hordes of smaller creatures skittering and crawling up along it.

"Priscilla! Shock the tether!" Hawke screamed, resuming his position after looking down.

"How would I go about doing that?" Priscilla's voice was infuriatingly calm.

"Fucking--Just dump some of the power from the solar batteries into the motor and it should ground down here to the fucker holding us down!"

"Won't that-"

"Yeah it'll fuck the motor but at least we wont be snacks for some HUGE FUCKING OCTOPUS MONSTER! FUCKING DO IT"

A cascade of sparks ripped down the tether, through the platform, and down into the monster below. Hawke didn't have a chance to look over the edge, because soon they were being pulled back into the platform as it was pulled behind the orbiter. 

"It seems we're free from the animal down there, Mr. Hawke." Again with the calm language, what the hell had Cassie and her been doing that kept them from getting stressed at all?

"Okay, now comes the task of getting us up there. Any thoughts orbiter? We aren't exactly made of oxygen down here, and our new friend probably can't handle the vacuum of space much longer."

Startlingly quickly, Cassie proposed something odd. "Cup and ball game! We slow the orbiter so y'all gain on us, we position the tether hatch where you'll be landing. Sound good?"

Deadpan, Hawke replied. "No. Do it anyway. I'm just going to close my eyes and hope for the best."

And so he did. The pressure from the platform behind him ceased, and he was thrown into microgravity. He swore he'd break his teeth with how hard he was clenching them. Letting out a pent up sigh, he opened his eyes to find the orbiter coming into view. Cassie had, remarkably, gotten pretty close to the mark, but Hawke and Kayla were off. Off enough that they'd slam into the hull, likely enough to break their face masks. Thinking quickly, he chucked Kayla toward the entrance, enough to get her back on track toward the mark, at the cost of his own trajectory. The alien, Song, and Kayla all fell almost perfectly into the hole, and Hawke braced for impact. He broke his fall enough with his hands that his helmet didn't shatter, but he was still left outside the ship without a cord to hold him to it. He tumbled over the hull, gasping at anything that could hold him, but his momentum kept him from gasping anything for more than an instant. 

The alien pulled itself out of the hole, and crawled along the ship to Hawke, and grabbed his wrist, nearly being pulled off himself. They slowly slid to a halt, then the alien brought him back to the tether launching point. Once inside the chamber, Hawke found the inner airlock, cracked it open, and threw Kayla, Song, then himself into it. The Alien wiggled its way in, shutting it behind him.

Finally, safety.


	7. The Stranger's Grand Plan

"Holy shit squid, we made it" Hawke panted, laying against the wall of the airlock.

A few seconds later, the inner door popped open with a hiss. The two AIs opened the door to help the crew out. Kayla and Song were still unconscious, and Hawke was suffering from hypoxia, sucking in as much fresh air as he could. The alien was seemingly fine, more concerned with the Queen than anything else. She was her only link to these people. The only reason he came along for the terrifying ride. 

Ik'thrym slinked over to her, then popped off the head of her synthetic exoskeleton. He touched an arm to her face, feeling her. Her skin unlike anything he had touched before, warm and soft. Everything under the ice was cold, slimy, coated in scales or hard shells. Nothing like this. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the metal creatures kneeling down to grasp her. It lifted her up effortlessly and pulled her out, along with the ice scholar and metal worker. Ik'Thrym went to stand up, but found himself floating through the air. He spread his arms and took hold of the wals around him, this would be easy! Not unlike crawling around in a cave. 

The bots took their floating crewmates and gently maneuvered them out of the airlock into a room filled with strapped down crates, and large silvery tanks along the walls. The metallic figures trudged along the ground, their feet snapping to the floor with a deep thump each time. They reached a door, opening it into a well lit chamber. They motioned for Ik'Thrym to follow, so he launched himself out of the airlock, putting a few arms in front of himself to dull the momentum. He pushed off the wall, then again and again, like a ping-pong ball in a tube. He reached the chamber, crawled inside, and the doors shut. 

The humans were carefully set on the ground, and gravity found its way back to them. Ik'thrym's weight grew rather quickly, past what he was used to under the sea. After a few minutes of awkwardly squishing into the floor, the doors opened again into a completely different part of the craft. It was better lit, had greenery along the edges, a clean floor, and white walls with various colored lines leading in different directions. Apparently the cross transfusion gave Ik'Thrym the ability to read the human's glyphs. On the left side, a blue line with the label [GYM/REC] and a green label marked [HYDROPONICS]. On the right side, a black label marked [DORMATORY] and a red label marked [MEDICAL]. The colored lines came out from the floor, before curving off to either side into the distance. Between the two sets of lines was a ring, with quarters of it split into the colors. Looking to the side, Ik'Thrym saw the colored lines disappear into the distance, curving up into the ceiling. 

The black painted bot looked to Ik'Thrym. "If you need water, follow the blue line. You'll find a chamber with a large body of water. After that, you can follow the red line to come find us, we'll be setting the crew into medical pods to rehab them." The two bots turned away, their humans on platforms floating in the air, and began to walk away.

The alien turned the other direction, following the blue line. After a while of scooting along the floor, the pathway opened up into a large room filled with various chunks of metal in different configurations, orbs with vibrant colors, bars along the walls. On the opposite side of the metal objects, a rectangular hole filled with water. Rejoice! Ik'Thrym practically leapt across the room into it, releasing the water he'd held on to since he left the chamber in the human's built. He sucked in a fresh bolus of water, nothing that it had a strange sterile feel to it. It felt odd, but not unwelcome after the long day. After jetting around in the water a few times, he found himself getting relaxed in the warm water, slowing down and falling asleep.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Stranger peered out from the palace temple, looking over the deep at the raging Titan. Since the attack several days ago, the gargantuans had been standing guard around the city, arms wrapped around eachother forming a living wall. A gaping hole in the sky above was seen, leaving many confused and enthralled. The Stranger, however, saw opportunity. If there was a land above the sky, he was sure he could conquer it. He witnessed Ik'Thrym follow a strange light and several feral beasts up a hole through the ice, so there must be something up there to find. He had to find a way to get out from this icy prison. He looked up to the writhing Titan, lost in thought, when he noticed the feral beasts swarming around the Titan's mantle. Dashing in and out of the massive beast like the front of a nursery cavern. That may be the way out, but he would need help. Someone that no one would miss. Someone like the Watcher. 

He jetted to the edge of the city, careful to stick to the shadows where curious civilians would make note of his presense. He reached the barracade of gargantuans. Creatures designed by him to do all manner of tasks. Construction and defense in particular. Thankfully, he hadn't designed them to be smart in any way, so he could easily slip by them without alerting others, so long as he told them not to.

The gargantuans were his first success in genetic modification, after he had discovered that experiments on the larval stage were much more controllable than those on specimens that have gone through metamorphisis. A simple gene slip caused madness in the earlier volunteers, their skin losing all color, fading to inky black, as dark as the abyss. Some grew to monsterous proportions, two or three times the intended size, but they all went insane. Uncontrollable. Not suited for what the King wanted for his domain. After nearly losing his life after being locked in a room with one of the beasts, he decided it best to do his experiments outside, away from prying eyes and potential casualties.

In trying to create the gargantuans to protect the city, he played with genes regulating growth, every experiment that failed, he would merely release to the depths. The final experiments were done on captives from war, then prisoners. Word got out that volunteers never came back, so sacrifices had to be made. The last was a rogue warrior, intent on killing the king and claiming his court. He seemingly never learned language, instead generating sounds by forcing water from his mantle, making a dull reverberation. It was this individual that would eventually become the Titan, forever enraged at the Stranger for turning him into a monster. The Stranger would have to be careful when approaching him, careful not to be spotted lest he be torn to shreds by its minions.

The Stranger finally arrived at his destination, the Watcher's post. Naturally, the Watcher had known he was on his way well before he got there. The biolights inside we already on, a welcome from the Watcher for his guest. 

"I see you've left the safety of your hole. What is it you need from one such as I?" The Watcher had no time for pleasantries. As such, the Stranger decided not to waste any time.

"I want to get inside the Titan and make him take us away, and I need your help."

The Watcher flatly responded. "I figured it would something to do with that thing out there," He turned to a shelf behind him, grabbing a small, ghostly object. "This fell from the sky after the Titan shattered it. I've never seen anything like it here." He extended the arm wielding the object to the Stranger, who grasped it in his singular tentacle, then brought it close to his eye to inspect it.

A perfect cylinder, hard and cold, almost invisible, only betrayed by the distortions it caused on its edges. One end open, the other rounded to a dome, the inside hollow. Faint markings lined one of the sides, a string of indecypherable glyphs.

The Watcher began again. "The plain is covered in objects like this. Something must have been on top of the sky-if thats possible-and riled up the Titan."

The Stranger interjected. "Thats exactly what I want to know. I saw Ik'Thrym chase a number of those...beasts, up a hole that some odd creature came out of. I think I can convince the Titan to help us investigate."

"And how would we manage that?" The Watcher asked, incredulously.

"I join his mind. You just need to escort me to it." The stranger replied, unaware of the insanity of his proposal.

"I'm sorry, did I mishear you? how do you expect to 'join his mind' let alone get inside him? You've seen what it can do." The watcher stared blankly at the madman.

"You don't need to know those specifics. I just need you to keep us hidden from his view so we can slip inside. I've dissected enough cadavers to know how to navigate to his primary brain. Once we're inside there shouldnt be a problem." The Stranger looked almost gleeful. 

The Watcher didn't respond, lost in thought. If the Titan was gone, there wouldn't be a reason to keep others from going into the abyss, then again, if he died trying to approach it...he would be dead. An all or nothing proposal, but what was the all in the arrangement?

"What do I get out of this deal, if we even survive?" 

The Stranger was pleased at this breakthrough. "We're going to wherever these types of things are from." He played with the object in his grasp, manipulating it lazily. "Enough with looking over this barren wasteland, we could have an entire other world to explore."

The Watcher seemed skeptically convinced. After all, did he really want to waste his entire life sitting in one spot, looking over an expanse of black nothingness. "Fine, I'll come. When do we leave?"

"We leave now, while the beast is distracted. I'll keep you between me and it, and since you're as black as the abyss, we should be able to swim right to it without alerting it. All of its thralls should ignore us without an attack order."

Without waiting for any sort of response, the Stranger jetted out of the watchpost. A few moments later his head popped back across the entrance, popping an impatient color to the Watcher, before zipping off again. The watcher sighed, kicking up some dust from the floor of his post, then followed suit, gently climbing out of the structure. A few seconds later, a tentacle wrapped back inside to turn off one of the bio lights.

The Stranger stopped and turned to the watcher. "before we go any further, be sure once we're inside to not touch anything. I don't know how he communicates with his army, its possible that as soon as we touch him they'll know we're there and we'll be torn to shreds in an instant. So...no touching." As soon as he was done talking, he gestured for the Watcher to get in front of him, the hulking Titan above, endlessly writhing. 

They never seemed to get any closer to it, despite the endless swimming they had done towards the monster. The only indication was that the sky was completely blotted out by it, its mass of tentacles extending as far as their eyes could see. In the distance, small specks could be seen entering and exiting the Titan, just above its eye. That must be the primary access point for the beast's horde. 

Finally they got close to the Titan, the Watcher's irisless eyes proving to be a powerful boon, matching his body in blending with the abyss below. The two outsiders slipped into the massive cavern that was the Titan's mantle. It looked like the inside of an infested larder. Walls coated in so many lashers that they looked like a soft bed of fur. Larger warriors and hunters stalked around, stepping between them as they moved about inside. There were previously unseen creatures tucked between the lashers, resembling court attendants, but their tentacles greatly emaciated, and their mantle bulbous with green growths.

The inside of the beast glowed a deep red color, accentuated with a deep thrum, pulsing and pulling the water gently in and out of the monster's mantle. Despite the damage he was causing outside, the cavernous inside of it was very calm. The green specks from the odd new mutants gave a hint of scale, vanishing into the distance.

"Well, seems safe enough, lets just not ruffle any scales and get to where we need to go before anything goes wrong." If nothing else, the Watcher was pragmatic about the situation. The trick would be keeping the Stranger from touching things he shouldn't. Just as he was thinking that, he was over inspecting one of the mutants, tentacle poised to tap on its head. One quick grab from the Watcher, and he was yanked back away. "What happened to not touching anything? You have no idea what that thing does."

"I've never seen one of these before! I need to know how it came to be!" The stranger exclaimed. "I need to know if theres another..." The Stranger trailed off, dropped his arms limp, and started jetting towards their destination.

The Watcher darted in front of him. "Another what?"

"Another from where I'm from." The Strangers color flashed fear. An odd feeling, given a potential family reunion.

"Lets jet and chat. We got a way to go," the Watcher suggested. "Please continue."

He opened up surprisingly fast, I guess being on a one way mission does a lot to devalue secrets. "I'm not from here. Not from the depths, not from the shallows. I came from across the abyss. Small clan. They'd been alone for so long that rather than using the standard king and queen reproductive castes, the queens could simply clone themselves when laying eggs. This is the origin of our gene editing techniques. Everyone could do it, allowing us to become whatever we needed at any given time. It wasn't until I began to experiment with my ability to transfer my mutations that I was exiled. Being stranded in the abyss gave them lots of time to do things other than all the politics that happens up here. Just before I was sent off, others were discovering different ways to manipulate matter. Their abilites make my ice conjuring look like larva's play. They have these...crystals. Light plays through them, they have this energy about them that burns your eyes, like staring into a volcanic vent. As I was leaving they had a way to...bridge them. Swim through one and leave the other. After that, my memory is blank. One day I found the cliff, with a small settlement on top, and a king and queen desieged by animals of the abyss and warmongers from the depths. They took me in, I showed them my work, and I began to alter their warriors in the ways of ice conjuring. There were...setbacks, naturally. But eventually we found the best way to alter individuals, and that was at the larval stage. I started with weak larvae. The ones that wouldn't last into adulthood. I saved many of them, improved them. Many were better than their healthy clutchmates. I started a cabal to train others to do my work. We developed many great works...Anyway. You know the rest of the story. You were one of my first successes."

The Watcher didn't respond for a few moments, taking the story in. "So that's why they call you the stranger then?"

"Yep, it popped up one day and it stuck. I abandoned my old name after being exiled. NOW! We should be getting close to this things center," He turned back to the direction they had come from, seeing nothing but the cavernous expanse of the inside of the Titan, warriors and hunters crawling in the far distance. Turning back forward, a change in terrain, and clear line where the Titan's army didn't roost. The source of the deep thrum was found at last, a gargantuan heart, pumping slowly, but powerfully. The brain of the beast would be situated below it, though at this scale, that would still be quite the trek. 

The Watcher broke the stay in conversation. "Did I ever have a name?" He showed a high amount of emotional coloration with this statement, unusual for the normally stoic warrior.

The Stranger responded coldly. "No. You were one of the larvae that had a low chance of survival, which is why you were handed off to me. My ambitions weren't as high as they are now, so I gave you the simple modification to your eyes. You never had a name, you just have your title."

"Maybe I can get one later, then."

"Maybe."

The duo finally made their way past the deafening heart, and a mess of other gigantic organs, finally making their way to the brain. A mass of grey flesh, tendrils and webs leading to different brains that controlled each arm. The whole thing together was a network, thinking together, rather than one unit thinking itself. It was this quality that the Stranger believed he could use in order to join with the Titan. His extra mind would just be another, miniscule node on the mass of flesh. With any luck, it wouldn't even know he was there.

The stranger maneuvered his severed arm bud to his beak, then took a sharp bite, exposing the nerve bundle below. He then carefully scraped one of the Titan's nerve tendrils, and jammed his exposed nerves into the beast.

Suddenly his mind was carried outward. He knew He was still inside, but his perception was that of the entire Titan. He could feel the ice against his skin, he could see the depths below, and the black sky above, with the looming orb hanging over. A number of thoughts whisked by, like passing dust. I focused his new vision to what the Titan was looking at. A small gray ring in the distance, with a bright light behind it, gently floating into the black sky. New memories were accessible. The intruder from above, a tiny...Ik'Thrym with it. The order to attack. The pounding, the cracking, the breach, the shock. Strange creatures with Ik'Thrym, ascending to the thing above.

Flash back to now. A blazing heat inside the head, but not where he was, somewhere hidden. That was the source of his endless rage. The Stranger whispered into the Titan's mind. " _Climb up. Follow the shape in the sky"_ "

Scale diminished, ripping his arm out of the brain. The Stranger could see through his own eyes again. He felt miniscule, but powerful. He recognized the burning pain he felt. He turned to the Watcher.

"The Abyssals are here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya folks, hope you enjoyed the chapter! This section of the story is mainly a setup for part two of the journey. From here I'll be starting on the 18+ content, with sprinkles of plot to go with it. 
> 
> However, the college semester has started, so my time dedicated to writing (or storyboarding) will decline drastically. In addition to classes, I'll also be working a job, which will further reduce my time spent writing. I was going to wait until part one of this story was completed, but I'd like to see if I'd have any support for a patreon. To start it would basically just be a tip jar, then after more support move into polls for new stories, or even commissions . I Have several ideas for new stories in the pipeline, many of which will just be straight up monster porn. I do have to pay for things after all, but I really enjoy writing. Let me know if you'd support such a venture! Thanks for reading, see you next chapter.


	8. A Date with Jupiter

Ik'Thrym awoke, opening his eyes to a bright blue sky, warmth radiating from the horizon. The ground beneath him was cool to the touch, and flowed around his arms gently as he moved them. He positioned himself upward to get a better look of where he was sitting. In front of him, water, extending as far as he could see, a warm breeze blowing into his face. Relaxing. Under him, a blanket of sand. Course, but pleasing to run his arms through. He focused to the direction the warmth was coming from, the sky changing from bright blue to brilliant oranges, reds, and pinks. 

Behind him, he could hear yelling, not scared or angry, but playful. " _Come on Kayla! You're gonna miss it!_ " A human yelling at him, smaller than the rest, looking at him, then turning away in a joyful sprint, but in a way that seemed slower than natural. Inexplicably Ik'Thrym got up on two--human--legs? Sprinting over the loose ground. He rounded the corner to a point of sand, a small fire playing in a pit, with more people standing around it, laughing, talking. Wait, whats a fire? Suddenly a commotion, everyone turning to the point and looking to the distance. A small white dot on the horizon, lifting into the sky, leaving behind a trail of smoke. A rocket, headed for space! Whats a rocket? A few moments later a quiet but powerful rumble came from the ship as it lifted off. He couldn't help but feel awe in staring at it. One of the larger people stepped up to him. " _Would you like a better view Kay?_ "

" _Yeah!_ " A voice? How did he say that?

The larger human picked him up, his legs dangling over their shoulders as he perched on them. It was a better view of the spectacle for sure. He felt...content. The sun warmed his back, and he drifted back to sleep.

He awoke again, underwater this time. He pulled his arms up to his eyes, yep, they were tentacles again. Good. What a strange dream to have. Most were just about gorging on fat fish or swimming around at incredibly high speeds, nothing as vivid or odd as that. He found the pool he was floating in to be a bit too warm for his tastes, so he made his way to the surface, and pulled himself out of the water. The lights had been turned down, a welcome change. Before getting moving, he stretched each of his legs out, getting ready for the trek to the other side of the ring. The humans liked their weight heavy, it seemed. 

Eventually, he hit his stride, shifting all his legs underneath him as to constantly be moving forward, each leg pushing back replaced by one returning to the front. He passed by the door marked for dormatories, and continued. Half way there. It seemed that everyone was asleep, it was incredibly quiet other than the slapping of his arms on the floor, that would explain the low lighting too.

Finally after a long walk, Ik'Thrym made it to the medical section of the ship. Song was resting within a pod, Hawke had a cast on the wrist the alien had grabbed him by. It looked uncomfortable, but uncomfortable was better than frozen to death millions of miles from home. Next was Kayla, resting in a bed, sitting upright, reading from her tablet. A jolt of excitement hit Ik'Thrym, seeing her in what looked to be good health. He slithered over to her, careful to not make much noise to avoid waking the others resting in the medical room. 

She saw movement in the corner of her eye, and put down her tablet to look at him. "Hey! You're up!"

Hawke stirred in his bed.

Kayla raised her wrist and flashed embarrassment, then motioned to the door and hopped out of her bed. 

Once outside, Kayla continued. "So, I imagine you got a good rest after the escape. I don't remember much after the first impact, on account of my head getting bonked. Hawke tells me you were quite the hero, saving Song like that."

"I did what anyone would do if they were in my position. I suppose having the extra arms compared to you people helped as well." His eyes narrowed and he jiggled a bit. Waves of color rippled over him. Laughter as Kayla saw it, for the first time since they met.

Kayla changed the subject. "Well, what should we do for tonight? I'm still feeling wired from everything thats been going on."

They idly strolled the ring of the ship, coming to a stop at one of the many windows along the side. They leaned on the sill, gazing out. Thankfully the ring was large enough that the rotation was hardly noticable at a casual glance. They were looking out the rear, watching Jupiter's churning clouds in the distance. Thankfully there was enough of a reflection in the window for Kayla to be able to speak to the alien without directly looking at him.

"So," she said, breaking the silence. "what do you think?"

"Its not like anything I've ever seen before. Anything I've ever thought of before. Before you came, the ice was the sky, and the sky was the ice. Few could ever reach it, let alone think about what was on the other side," He sighed. "I'm getting better at breathing your air, at least. You'll have to teach me about all this. Our kind has been simply existing. We mastered our world, for the most part. Now it seems there is so much more to learn."

Kayla stretched her neck, cracking it a few times. "Theres always more to learn. To be honest, we weren't expecting anything like you, more along the lines of sludge near volcanic vents. You have all these things going on, an entire other civilization to discuss and discover. Speaking of, I had a strange dream about it while I was out..."

Ik'Thrym's interest was piqued. "I had a strange dream too...I was above the water. Warmth came from the sky, from a light near the horizon. There were things I knew, that I've never heard of. Like fire, and a rocket, and sand. I quite liked the sand, it was pleasing to run my arms through."

Kayla stepped back from the window and turned to Ik'Thrym. "That was...Did someone lift you up? So that you could see better?"

Ik'Thrym turned to Kayla. "Yes, they called me Ky. I Think it was short for Ky'la? Someone else called for me in that name too."

Kayla's jaw dropped. "You...You just said my name! And that's one of my first memories! I was a kid, thats when I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. I remember later my dad laughed at me. He said that it was a lot of work to get there, but I stayed as firm as ever. But if you had my memory...Did I have one of yours?"

Ik'Thrym pulled one of his tentacles to the bottom of his head, curled in thought. "Maybe. What did you see?"

Kayla turned her back to the window, and leaned against it, looking into the air in thought. "I remember it being cold, but there was light. I couldn't see at the beginning. I was constricted...Like I was packed in too something too tight. Then suddenly it split open and I was in a village? I think? It's hard to remember all the details. There was a larger one...of you there. Maybe not larger, maybe I was smaller." She chuckled. "I remember she called me a brave little hunter. I could see behind me there were others waking up. Popping out of little shells. There were others around us picking the shells up and taking them away. The...Woman? In front called us Ick I think. I felt so wired, like I could sprint a mile a minute. I started to see things in the distance, things I knew I hadn't noticed before. Kelp forests wafting in the current, fish darting around. When I saw them I could feel my arms tingling. I zipped off at one of them, tried to lunge at it, but I missed and crashed into one of the kelp strands," Giggling, she continued "I remember the look on the nurse's face when she drifted up to me. The heaviest 'you know what you did' face. She didn't have to say anything. She untangled me from the kelp and led me back to the other Icks. I think she appreciated my drive to get there. I woke up shortly after that. Once I woke up I couldn't get the words 'Ick Thrim' out of my head. does that all sound familiar?"

The alien's eyes were wide, and his skin flush with embarassment. "Uh...yeah. Thats right after I finished my first metamorphosis. We start out as larvae in a cluster. Little wormy things. We're fed specific meals depending on what our town needs at the time, different foods guide to different morphs. The Ik brood, the one I'm part of, was mostly hunters. We'd started running low of food as the previous brood of hunters was ageing and getting less active. I guess I took to it quicker than most, even if I was a bit clumsy at first. But yeah. That's all me. I wonder why we got these memories from eachother, I've never heard of anything like that happening, even in rumors." His tenticle returned to his head, curling in thought once more. 

The two of them turned back to the window, looking at the massive planet hanging in the distance. For a while they didn't say anything, they just stood with each other.

After a few minutes, Kayla spoke up. "It's getting late, I think I'm going to head to bed. You gonna nap in the pool some more?"

Ik'Thrym turned to her. "Maybe, I got pretty well rested just before I came to see you. Not sure what I'll do."

Kayla couldn't help but feel the awkward tugging feeling that washed over her. Like it was the end of a first date. One that went well, but didn't know when to end. They had months until they got back to earth. They'd have time to keep talking. 

She turned to step away, but caught herself, freezing in place. She pivoted back to him, gently placed her hands on either side of his head, then leaned into him and lightly kissed between the boney lines of his crown. "Good night Thrim." She smiled at him, then turned and left for the dormitory.

Ik'Thrym stood frozen. His skin felt hot, mind racing a league a minute. She felt so soft on him, the place she kissed him glowing warmly. He glanced out the window for a moment.

Maybe he found his queen after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a short chapter! School has been eating a lot of time. Kinda went a bit more freeform with this, it's nice to write low intensity stuff. Leave some comments if you like! I crave interaction and they let me know how I'm doing.


	9. Breakfast and a Story

Kayla awoke the next morning with a warm hum in her soul. She had no idea why she had decided to kiss him, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time She did feel a pinch guilty, given they’d only known each other a few weeks, though that timeframe had been incredibly eventful. Maybe it was the genetic transfer that made her feel closer to him. She still felt happy about it though. 

She stretched and rolled out of bed, blindly prodding around the floor in search of her slippers. As she was doing that, she turned to her tablet and looked at her schedule. Technically it was her weekend, but she still wanted to get some work done examining the specimens from Europa. She would have to contact a cephalopod specialist back home before making any major conclusions about their biology though. She patted her face to wake herself up a bit more, then trudged out the dormitory door and set off to find some coffee. Thankfully the designers of the ship put the kitchen right next to the dorms. She slipped inside, found a pot already made. She sighed, then reached for a mug, but paused right before grabbing it. Her hand was completely transformed. The basic structure was still the same, but her skin was smooth and a deep iridescent purple. Her fingernails seem to have disappeared, leaving her fingers to taper into dull points. It seemed her skeleton still lurked beneath, but it seemed to be a lot looser, she could practically wrap up her fingers twice before they reached her palm. Looking closer at her skin, she could see her chromatophores pulsating with her heartbeat. She pulled back her sleeve to find that the change had reached up past her elbow, giving the appearance of a fancy dress glove. She poked and prodded at her forearm, feeling how soft her new flesh was. Somehow, this transformation hadn’t freaked her out in the slightest, she merely marveled at it. 

A headache pulsed. Right. Coffee. She shifted her attention back to the mug, grabbing it with her new hand. It felt basically the same, which was good, the extra dexterity would help with dissections. She filled up her mug, adding plenty of creamer. She liked drinking white coffee, despite the nagging of Hawke. She took her mug and walked to the entertainment section, finding Song, reading his paper, drinking his tea. She walked over, set up her feet on the coffee table, then got Song’s attention.

“Hey Commander, check this out.” 

Song raised his head to see something stomach wrenching. Kayla’s fingers wiggling like the tentacles of an anemone. “I-wha-uh....How?”

Kayla shrugged and took a sip of coffee. “Beats me! It's pretty neat though. After my coffee I was gonna go to the pool and visit Thrim to see if he can make heads or tails of it.”

“Thrim?” Song looked mighty confused at this series of events.

“Oh right! Yeah. Turns out that some of our memories got swapped during the genetic transf-” She coughed into her coffee. She forgot she hadn’t told him about that.

Song did not look impressed. “Go on.” he bluntly stated.

“Right...So after we brought him back to the habitat, I got the scratch. The scratch let me speak to him on a very basic, emotional level. We basically exchanged vibes. He explained through pictograms how he gained his ice generation ability. It involved another one of his species jabbing a needle into one of its inferior eyes, then manually transferring the resulting material into Thrim…” Kayla trailed off. She’d said enough that Song knew where the story was going next.

“So you let him jab you.” 

“Yes. And nothing bad came of it!” She splayed her arms with a “ta-dah!”

Song creased his brow and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a few moments of thinking, he simply released a sight. “Fine, nothing to do about it anyway. Would have been hard explaining to your family that you died via exotic genetic injection. But you’re here. Anyway, go on about this memory swap thing you mentioned.”

Kayla looked relieved as the pressure of punishment was lifted. “Right, so I had a dream about a time shortly after he metamorphosed from what seems to be a larval stage into his adult form, though at the time he was still small, so there was likely some more standard growth afterward. During the dream there were other individuals of his kind, they spoke his name, at me, in his body. He says he had a similar experience, living through a memory of a beachfront view of a rocket launch, the one that made me interested in space in the first place.”

Song looked genuinely interested. “That's quite the story, but we can’t exactly write a book on an alien civilization based on a nebulous dream you had. We’ll have to set up a more formal interview with the guy, and get the AIs to understand the language too, so they can corroborate the story.” he paused for a breath. “Anyway, on a lighter note, any idea what you’re going to do today?”

Kayla took another sip of coffee. “Was thinking of going down to cold storage to get a cursory examination on the cadavers, maybe later tonight go on another date with Thri-I mean spend more time with-interviewing-uhhh. Yeah.” She was clearly embarrassed, blushing a deep red on her face, with her arm turning bright pink. She took another drink of her coffee, stood up and started for the door towards the pool. “See you later Song!” She hurried out, nearly slamming the door behind her, leaning against it and sighing deeply. “Ugh. So much for keeping it secret.”

Song glanced at the slammed door, then chuckled and whispered to himself. “ _We’ve known for a while now_ ”  
Kayla took the time walking the pool to clear her head. Her heart had calmed from her blabbering to Song, but it was still pounding hard in anticipation of seeing Thrim again. How had she fallen for him so quick? He’s an alien for Pete’s sake! Sure she’d always been _into_ aliens, but she never actually thought she’d meet one. She doused that line of thinking before she started getting into more... _devious_ ones. 

Evidently, she didn’t douse them well enough, because as soon as she rounded the corner into the pool, Thrym saw her arm, still burning pink in embarrassment, with waves of rosy red. He chose to ignore that second part, he figured it was too soon to be that candid about mating. What he did notice, however, was the dramatic changes that were made to her arm, it looked almost like something that would live at home. He swam up to her edge of the pool and pulled himself up and out of it fluidly. Before she could say anything he enwreathed his tentacles around it, pulling it close to his face and inspecting it.

“This skin is like mine! I haven’t seen yours this close before!” Without waiting for a response, he pushed up Kayla’s sleeve and pulled himself up to see what it looked like further up, his arms still wrapped around her. A shiver of rosy red flushed through her again. Ik’Thrym noticed, and suppressed his own feelings, masking it behind curiosity, which, while genuine, was not his foremost feeling. Finally, he found the end of the transformation, still seeping its way up her arm. He unwrapped his arms from her, making sure to linger with the tips of his tentacles, lazily stroking the skin as he pulled away. 

“You know, if you want I can teach you to control your skin better, if it's at all like mine, you should be able to change its color and shape on a whim.” Thrym demonstrated with one of his own arms, flattening it and crimping the edges to give it the appearance of seaweed.

Kayla held up her alien arm, wiggling her tentacle fingers in front of her. “I don’t know, I’ve kind of grown fond of it, as strange as it is.” She lifted her arm and looked at her bicep. “Maybe I can keep the hand and camouflage the rest? It doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all.” She pinched her chin in thought for a moment. “Sure, let’s see if I can make this look like my old hand, should be a good start.” She stared intently at her hand, focusing to the point of going red in the face. She released her held breath. “Bleh. Guess it was never supposed to be that easy huh?”

Thrym seemed curious. “I suppose your species doesn’t have a way to control your skin like we do. But…” He trailed off in thought.

“But what?” Kayla asked.

“Your skin is tied to your emotions it seems, maybe you could try playing with those to see if anything works.” Thrym wiggled some of his arms playfully. After all, there was no reason to be serious.

“That could work maybe! I just have to think of the right thing!” Kayla said as she walked across the room, leaving the half that housed the pool, into the lounging area. She sat on one of the couches, a simple one with bright red fabric and cylindrical pillows as rests on either end. She closed her eyes in thought for a moment, the turned and laid down, resting her head on the arm rest.

As she laid there, Ik’Thrym inched closer to her, peering over her form. Her curves were enticing, her legs, her waist, her face, her chest. All of them seemed to sing melodiously to Ik’Thrym. He didn’t know why. Maybe it was the human genes he spliced into himself. Maybe it was the fact that in his entire life he hadn’t met a mate, maybe it was just random chance. All he knew is that he wanted to feel it. To be on it. To wrap himself around the beautiful curves of her and dance with her.

“Like what you’re seeing?” Kayla broke his day dreaming.

Now it was Ik’Thrym’s turn to blush. Although in his case he turned a stark white in embarrassment.

Giggling, Kayla continued. “It’s ok, trust me, I’m flattered.” She smiled at him, a gesture that further sang to Ik’Thrym. “I think I got the skin figured out while you were admiring the view” She held up her alien arm, now purely human looking, complete with nails, and even some faux pores. “I think I liked it the way it was though, it looks like a cute purple glove!” She shook out her arm, returning it to its previous alien-like state, wiggling her tentacle fingers in front of her. “It’ll be handy for when I meet my friends back home at least. As odd as it is I’m excited to see what I look like if it keeps spreading.”

Ik’Thrym continued to watch her, enthralled and smitten. “Have you eaten anything yet today? I’m starved. Normally I don’t eat often but all this action has made me ravenous.”

“How do you know that word?” Kayla asked, clearly confused. “Ravenous. That’s from an animal back on earth.”

“Probably some analogous language translation, what I said was about lashers, those little eels that came after us after the breach to the surface. They eat everything and spawn out of control if you don’t cull them regularly. Anyway, lead on to the food!”

The two of them made their way to the kitchen each acutely aware of the other, drawn to the other. Kayla's left alien arm grazed Ik’Thrym’s skin now and then, sending a shiver down her spine. It would have sent one down Ik’Thrym’s spine too, if he had one. They arrived at the kitchen, which had a device that lifted food from the storage section of the ship. It still had to be prepared, but it saved a lot of space. Kayla requested ramen for herself, and frozen salmon for her guest.

“You want yours cooked? Or are you ok with it frozen?” Kayla asked Ik’Thrym.

“Uh, I’ll have it cooked thanks. We use volcanic vents back home for cooking. Don’t suppose you have any of those laying around?” Thrym’s gesturing was full of cutesy sarcasm.

Kayla giggled. “No, but we do have other ways of cooking things. We can work on seasoning to taste when we’re less hungry. Right now I just wanna stuff my face. I think the transformation is devouring energy.”

Kayla added some flash boiled water for her ramen, adding a premixed package of simple herbs and spices. The Salmon for Ik’Thrym was smoked and dried back on earth, so just a simple steam bath brought it back to its full form. Less tasty than if it were made fresh, but still pretty good.

She put her ramen in a bowl, and placed Thrym’s salmon on a plate, then set down at the dining table. Though to say it was a dining table was generous, it was simply a circular high-quality plastic table, large enough to sit all four human crew. The two sat down next to each other, Kayla digging in while eyeing Ik’Thrym. He brought himself to one of the chairs, checking it out before taking a perch on it, arms dangling off the edges. He brought his tentacles up to the table, his shimmering claws still attached. He manipulated a previously unseen clasp, allowing it to slip off cleanly. They were exquisitely crafted, fitting perfectly over his natural, bony claws. He did the same to the other, then shook them out.

“Keep forgetting I wear those. Haven’t taken them off for quite some time!” He brought his claws to the fish, and with surprising dexterity pulled it into bite sized bits, then, using his claw as a utensil, brought the piece under his head to his mouth. His eyes relaxed, clearly, he liked the taste. 

It was Kayla’s first time seeing him eat, and she was curious. “If it's not too intrusive, may I see how you eat? I’d like to compare it to cephalopods back on earth.” 

“That is an incredibly odd question you know,” replied Ik’Thrym. “I suppose I could show you, but it’s not that complicated. Simply take the food, and put it into the beak, mash it with the tongue to an agreeable consistency, then swallow. I’d show you but…” He looked to the side as he trailed off.

“But?”

“My mouth isn’t the only thing under there.”

All the color drained from Kayla’s face as she covered her face in embarrassment. “OhmigoshIdidn’tknowI’msosorry!”

Ik’Thrym jiggled in amusement. “It’s quite alright. I could show you some of the inner workings on those ferals I killed...That is presuming I didn’t mess up their insides too bad.”

Kayla’s embarrassment had been whisked away, and she was filled with renewed curiosity. “Tell me about these ferals, if you would.” She punctuated the end of her sentence by stuffing a massive portion of ramen into her mouth.

Ik’Thrym was free to eat and chat at the same time, so he snagged another piece of salmon, then started. “I’m not totally sure of their origin, but they live in the abyssal plain. So deep that there’s next to no light. They’re all close to jet black, as you’ve seen. I guess the Titan leads them, but I’d never seen nor heard of him before. The stories we were told as squirts had us believing they were lurking just outside of town, ready to scoop us up and make us one of them at a moment’s notice. I thought those were just to keep us in check, but maybe that's how they grow their population. Behaviorally, they’re brutal. During the siege-”

“Siege? What the fuck was happening down there?” Kayla barely kept herself from spitting food all over the table during her outburst.

“...Yes. Siege. I’ll get back to that. During...that, I saw them ripping their companions up while trying to attack the city, like they needed to be first to draw blood. Thankfully, the defenses stood up to the attack. The temple had these massive creatures, they called them gargantuans. The Stranger, the one who gave me my ice, said he made them from squirts. Gave them immense size at the cost of intelligence. He said that was how they built their city. They intertwined their arms to form a living wall, before they grew Ice to fill in the gaps. Then other defenders came from above and shredded them with ice spears.” 

Kayla’s bowl sat empty, still steaming gently. “So where were you during all of this?” Her hands were folded under her chin as she listened intently to the story.

“I was directly in front of the Titan. I tried to attack his eyes but barely left a scratch. He sicced a mass of lashers on me, which would have ripped me to shreds if The Stranger hadn’t shown up. The oddest thing happened though…” Ik’Thrym had finished his salmon, his plate surprisingly clean. “When it issued orders, it sucked in a bunch of water before bellowing it out. One of the times it did that I saw something familiar. I saw this.” He turned sharply, pulling up his mantle to show where The Stranger had stuck him.

“You think it was The Stranger who made them?” Kayla inquired.

“I don’t think it should be ruled out, but we left them behind. No use worrying about it now.” Ik’Thrym slipped off his seat, then turned to Kayla. “Up for a swim?”

“Absolutely.”

* * *

The Stranger sensed movement in the Titan. "I think you should grab onto something friend."

The Watcher took heed, and grappled around a mass of sinewy flesh, and not a moment too soon. A massive flex flowed through the beast, followed by a jolt that nearly dislodged them.

The Titan only felt anger. He did what his mind told him to do. And it told him to follow and destroy the intruder in the distance. With a final release, the mountain of flesh dislodged from the surface of Europa, following the small metal beast in the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya folks! Sorry I haven't gotten to smutty stuff yet, I just like these characters too much, and I want them to fall in loooooooove. The Titan subplot will be put on ice (ha) for a bit while we have fun on the space ship. They'll be there though, following the main crew to earth.
> 
> I appreciate y'all for reading! Cya next time ^-^


	10. A Swim with Thrym

Thrym was clearly ecstatic to be back to the pool after a while out of the water, quickly bounding towards the edge in a floppy, squishy fashion. He leaped, diving into the pool with an ungraceful splash. Kayla could see him excitedly darting around under the surface, quickly dashing around the edges of the pool. It wasn’t huge by any means, but it was large enough for two humans to do laps at the same time.

Kayla looked on amused, then went to the locker room, which at this size was more like a locker closet. She stripped down and out of her sleeping clothes, and slipped into the simple two-piece bathing suit she brought with her. Maybe after the swim, she could move to the sunroom facing the bow. But for now, swimming! She stepped out of the lockers, seeing a curious Ik’Thrym poking the top of his head out of the water. She took a few steps out to the pool before reaching the edge and diving in. 

The water was warm, the perfect temperature to be comfortable.The pool used a simple filtration system that took physical impurities out of the water, then exposed the water to cosmic rays, effectively sterilizing it. She opened her eyes under the surface, watching Ik’Thrym gleefully looping around her. On an odd note, she noticed she didn’t feel as if she was running out of breath. She looked at her arm and saw that it had crinkled up somewhat, increasing its surface area. The realization hit her like a tidal wave. She could breathe with her skin! She smiled at her friend and started undulating through the water, gracefully slipping through the water.

The two swam around under the surface for a long while. They swirled and danced around one another, with Ik’Thrym breaching through the surface and splashing back in a few feet away. At one point Hawke came in to check on them, but the two didn’t notice him standing on the side of the pool, they were too busy playing. Before they knew it, the lights on the ship reached a full blue color, indicating midday. Kayla signaled Ik’Thrym that she wanted to swim up topside, then pulled herself out, sitting on the edge with her legs dangling in the water, gently kicking forward and back.

Ik’Thrym surfaced, pulling himself toward her legs, gently wrapping a tentacle around each, loosely enough for her to still sway them. Kayla blushed at him, then brought her still human hand to his head, and gently ran her nails over the top of it. She figured that if it felt nice for human people to be touched in such a way that it would feel nice for her new alien, and as it turned out, she was right. His eyes slightly unfocused, his coloration became warmer, more relaxed. 

“I think that's quite enough swimming for me right now,” Kayla said, contentedly. “I was thinking of heading to the front of the ship to relax in the sun. What do you think?”

Several of Ik’Thrym’s arms surfaced to allow Kayla to more clearly see what he was saying. “I think I could go for some relaxing. But what’s a sun?”

Kayla gently giggled at Ik’Thrym. “I think it’ll be easier for me to show you than to explain it.” She removed her hand from his head, and pulled herself up from the side of the pool. She crouched and offered a hand to help Ik’Thrym out of the pool. A tentacle reached up from the water, coiling up and around her arm, until her hand was near the base of it, when it tightened, she grasped it more firmly and lifted him out. He seemed grateful for the help, and the two stood for a moment, just looking at each other. Kayla smiled, then turned and grabbed a towel to wrap around herself. 

They stepped out into the hallway, and Kayla walked up to one of the touchscreens embedded in the wall, tapping a few pop-ups as soon as they appeared. Behind her, a small hatch opened previously hidden, having blended into the floor. Kayla turned and stepped down into it, then called up for Ik’Thrym to follow suit. After he sank into it, Kayla reached up and closed the hatch. It was a semi-furnished, but dimly lit passageway, just tall enough for Kayla to not bump her head on the ceiling. 

“This area is typically reserved for storage and repair access, but I asked one of the engineers to make a little private sun gazing room down here. I figured it would be nice for getting away.” She led them forward along the inside of the cramped space until they came across another, smaller doorway. She flipped up a panel, input a few key presses, and it slid open. Inside wasn’t very spacious, but it had a low-lying couch and a wide window that took up the entirety of one of the walls. One could see the center of the craft floating above, rotating as the ring circled. In the distance was the main attraction, the Sun. 

Kayla slipped inside, sitting on the couch, then kicking her feet up and leaning back into its deep cushions. “Come on in, there's plenty of room for you too.” There really wasn't that much room, but she figured it might be strange to ask an alien to cuddle on a couch if he didn’t know the concept. Regardless, she patted the cushion next to her, then stopped for a second, pulling off her towel and laying it down where he would go. He slipped into the chamber and pulled himself onto the wet towel.

After he had settled in, Kayla reached out her alien left arm, and pulled one of Ik’Thrym’s tentacles up into it, wrapping him around her. It was probably as close to hand-holding as they would be able to get. After they were firmly settled in, arms entwined, Kayla pointed forward. “That is the Sun. The source of all life on earth. Well, almost all of it.” She turned to look at Ik’Thrym before continuing. “Some animals, like us humans, like to lay down in it, and just sit in the warmth of it. It's relaxing. It feels good. Most people actually start to feel ill, or down, if they don’t see the sun in too long. We’re tied to it on a pretty deep level.” She stopped for a second, then started laughing. “That sounds utterly ridiculous coming from a scientist, even if it is true on some level.” She sighed, and they laid there, in silence.

She pulled herself closer to him, slipping her bare legs between his tentacles. He reciprocated, gently wrapping around them with them. She reveled in the feeling of being embraced all around her legs, his cool slippery skin kissing hers. They relaxed like that for a while, sitting in the warmth of the sun, eyes closed, enjoying each other's embrace. 

“You said your home had lots of water, right?” Ik’Thrym gestured with a few of his free arms. “What’s it like?”

Kayla sighed contentedly, now stroking the arm she held with her other hand. “It's huge. There are parts where all you can see is water. Closer to land--that is, ground the extends above the surface of the water, it's shallow and warm. It's filled with all sorts of beautiful wildlife, bright and colorful.”

“Kind of sounds like where I’m from.”

Kayla continued. “There are other places too, near the poles the water gets extremely cold, and the only life huddles around volcanic vents for energy. Truth be told, we hardly know anything about our oceans, even though they take up most of the planet.”

Kayla trailed off, and she fell into a daze of relaxation. The rigorous swimming in the morning took a toll, and laying here, cuddling, put her right out. Ik’Thrym noticed this and moved to more completely cover her up, like a living blanket. He laid there, cradling her, gazing at the blazing star ahead. He could get used to the warmth, it felt nice.

* * *

The two surfaced after the long cuddle session in Kayla’s secret chamber, hungry for dinner. They popped out, seeing that not much had happened other than the ship's lights fading to a warm amber to simulate evening. After grabbing dinner the two headed back to the pool. When they arrived, Ik’Thrym pulled her to the side and asked her into the pool.

She seemed confused but trusted him. He dove in, and she followed. Once they were under, he spoke. “I wanted...to kiss you. Like you kissed me. Our way is a little different though.” He slowly parted his front arms and tentacles to reveal his underside, wherein the center, what appeared to be a three-pronged beak resided. He spread them out to reveal a pink soft triangular organ, which he wiggled a bit before pulling it back in. He reoriented to explain. “My tongue. I don’t have a soft face like you so I figured I could use it to kiss you with.” His gestures seemed meek, hesitant. 

Kayla blushed at his statement, her arm turning a warm pink. She smiled at him, swam forward, and gave him a hug. She then pulled away, still smiling, and nodded. 

Ik’Thrym again spread his arms and welcomed her underneath him. His beak opened, tongue protruding, and Kayla moved to it, placing her lips to its tip. It was much warmer than the rest of him, and slimy too. After a few moments of the light kiss, Ik’Thrym started to pull away, but Kayla grasped his tentacles by the shoulder and pulled him back in, where she then opened her mouth and welcomed his tongue. Her heart was pounding, this alien appendage writhing within her mouth, gently playing with her own. She was growing hot, her core burning up. Ik’Thrym too was getting excited, pulling all of his arms around Kayla’s curves, drinking them in with his touch, curling around her waist, her arms and legs, touching as much as her as he could. She gently sucked on his tongue, trying to pull more of it into her, urged on my Thrym’s tentacles wrapping around her. His tongue was deep enough to nearly cause her to gag, but she simply swallowed through it and continued, gripped with lust for her alien. She pulled toward him, trying to get as much of his body on her as she could. Unfortunately, she started to run out of breath from all the action and had to pull away from him, lips wrapped around his tongue as she slowly backed off. She made it last as long as possible, relishing in the texture of his tongue as it pulled out. She felt like she had to make sure to continue sucking on it as she pulled it out. She hadn’t even realized that her partner had wrapped all around her, slipping all over her skin, grazing some spots that he couldn’t have known about. She bit her lip and leaned into his embrace, mouth free of his tongue after all this time. 

His head has looked back down at her, electrifying each other with the simplest eye contact. She nodded toward the shallower end of the pool, where she could stand with her head above water. They slowly drifted over, Kayla still wrapped up in Thrym, though less so than in the moment. Her heart was still pounding, core still blazing hot, as she popped her head above water, breathing deeply. She leaned up against the edge, embracing Ik’Thrym. The ship had fully darkened, indicating it was finally night time. 

“I think we should do that again sometime.” Kayla mused suggestively. “Maybe the next time we could have some fun in our sunroom.” She kissed him again, making sure to let it linger on him.

“I’m sure we could make that happen.” Evidently, he was in the mood as well, as one of his arms coiled around her thigh, slowly crawling its way up. He loves how her skin felt against his. 

Kayla had to snap out of her lust for a minute, however, suddenly feeling exhausted. “As good as this is, I’m not sure I can sleep underwater just yet. I should head to bed I think. I’ll bring breakfast for you.” She smiled at him, gave him one last kiss before pulling from him, grabbing a towel, and drying off. She turned before leaving the room, blowing a kiss and stepping out.

Ik’Thrym pushed away from the wall, sinking back to the deep end, and stared at the surface of the water without thought until he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya folks, thanks again for reading! Finally started work and have classes rolling up on me, which devoured a lot of my time to write. Hope y'all enjoyed! See you next week ^-^


	11. Climax

Kayla woke up the next day, still feeling warm and fuzzy from the last night. She rolled to her side, looking at her alarm clock. A little later than usual, but still a good amount of time asleep. She coughed. Ugh, sore throat. “ _Am I coming down with something?_ ” she thought to herself. She coughed again, then remembered last night. Her face turned beet red. She was embarrassed, fluttery, skin tingly and warm. She quickly got dressed and stepped into the hallway, thankful that there wasn’t anyone to point out how flustered she was. She centered herself with a deep breath and stepped out into the main hall. Her heart still pumped heavily, as if the ceiling itself could crash on her at any second.

“Everything ok?” Song chirped, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost” He had his morning tea with him. He always had his tea. 

Kayla started to speak before her throat caught, forcing a stifled cough out of her.”Uh, yeah, just feel a little off this morning. I’m sure it's nothing.” Kayla hoped this feigned explanation would suffice for Song. 

“Alright, well get to medical if it keeps up. Can’t have you laid out while we have incredible alien specimens to examine.” He took a sip of his drink then continued walking. He made it just a few steps before turning back, “And remember to teach the computers how to speak squid!”

Kayla sighed. Hopefully, her cough didn’t arouse too much suspicion, she’d have to remember it in case Song asked her about it later. She continued about her morning grabbing breakfast and wistfully thinking about Ik’Thrym. Where was he, by the way? She quickly finished her coffee and made her way to the rec room.

* * *

Ik’Thrym woke in the pool. He wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, or if he had at all. Time seemed to blend together. His daze was broken when he spotted a shadow looming over the surface of the water. He pushed himself off the bottom to investigate. Breaching the water, he was met by the image of Kayla kneeling over the edge.

“Hello!” she chirped, “Care to help me dissect some squids today?” She tilted her head to the side just a pinch as she finished the sentence.

He flashed a blushing color, then nodded in return.

* * *

They made their way to one of the elevators that lead to the center of the ship, a long cigar-like tube that the habitation space ringed around. As the elevator lowered, the two experienced a disorienting loss of gravity, until both of them sat suspended in the air. Ik’Thrym was better equipped to handle this, given his abundance of arms. Kayla on the other hand had to hold tight and toss herself around. The doors opened to the storage area of the craft, where they had come in from the Europan surface. A warehouse littered with boxes of various sizes, holding food, medicine, replacement parts, back up oxygen, and tanks for the hydrogen siphons around the ship. The two floated away from the elevator to a large metal door, leading to the specimen refrigerator. It wasn’t meant to house more than water and substrate samples, so the three massive monsters practically spilled out when Kayla opened the door. The largest, rusty red warrior beast flopped out first, and as such, was the one to be dissected. Thankfully in the microgravity of the cargo hold, the several ton mass of flesh was easier to move. Kayla really hadn’t gotten a proper look at it before, but the thing was the size of a small dump truck. Every time she thought she had it out of the storage, she looked back to see even more of it still stuck inside.

 _“How the hell did those bots get this thing in there?”_ she thought to herself, wrangling a tentacle the size of a tree trunk through the door.

Ik’Thrym had an easier go of it, as he could grasp the beast with several of his arms while pushing off of the wall with the rest. After a few minutes of tugging, the creature popped out. Kayla carefully wrapped the tentacles in straps to keep them from crashing into errant crates, then the two guided it through the cargo hold, bringing it to an improvised examination area. 

Hawke had built a fancy modular scanning device, seven concave pieces that used a combination of electromagnetic frequencies that were to be stitched together into a matrix of data, creating a fully rendered hologram of the subject's anatomy. Thankfully, as Ik’Thrym had an excess of arms, he could hold five of the devices as Kayla carried the two remaining.

“So what exactly do this things do?” Ik’Thrym motioned toward the devices he was holding, crude figurines riddled with wires and antennas. He couldn't quite figure out how intricate this thing was, given that metal of any sort was a rare and precious commodity for his people, and could only be used for weaponsmithing or decoration.

“Well…” Kayla began but then drifted off. How the hell would she explain this tech to him? She tried her best to boil down the concept. “These things can emit an invisible light that interacts with everything between them. At least it's invisible to us, not sure about you guys.” She motioned to move to the top of the beast, before flipping a small switch on one of her devices that brought them all to life. Slowly, the two crept down the monster, carefully keeping the devices in line.

After the scan was complete, she brought her master device to one of the ship’s terminals, hooking it up and uploading the data. Before long, a ghostly image emerged from the screen, a miniature hologram of the alien floating a few feet away. Unfortunately, as the hologram was intended for users with only two eyes, Ik’Thrym couldn’t quite get a clear view of it. Kayla inspected the ghost thoroughly, checking for any mistakes or errors in the data collection. The ends of the tentacles seemed a bit out of focus, but those were easy enough to see without the aid of the hologram, so it wasn’t much of an issue. 

Kayla matched up the image with the creature, lining it up in such a way that they overlapped, allowing her to know where things were going to be once she opened it up. Conveniently enough, the puncture wounds Ik’Thrym had made served ass an excellent benchmark. The internal organs were much the same as in Ik’Thrym, unsurprising due to the similar morphology of the two. Much like comparing humans to the chimpanzees of old. Most Notably, the central brain of this specimen was comparatively much smaller than Thrym’s, even accounting for the amount destroyed in the fight. Inversely, the ganglia associated with its legs were very much enlarged, almost to the point of looking cancerous. Still, they’d need to check out the two other specimens before making a definitive judgment. 

Next on the list was to start sequencing the genome of the beast, which was simple enough to do given the ship’s supercomputer and the genetic content Thrym had donated. Still, it would take some time before all the data was crunched, so after setting the sequencer to do its thing, Kayla set off to the next part, which was voiding the gastrointestinal system to check out what the thing had been munching on. 

Ik’Thrym sat to the side, watching his odd alien don a long filmy glove, before maneuvering to the monster’s mouth and jamming her arm in. She nearly got up to her shoulder in the beast before pulling out a black gelatinous glob from its maw. Kayla played with it in her hands, the odd mash holding its shape whenever she stopped squishing it. Perhaps their digestive system uses different processes to break down food? She quickly took a sample and diluted it in deionized water before shoving it into a chromatograph to analyze the composition of the goo. From there, she took another sample to a microscope to visually identify anything of use. 

In the goo, she saw what looked like sandy sediment, microscopic shells of creatures that looked like they could have come right out of a sample of diatomaceous earth. Other than that, else had any discernible shape. One would expect a carnivore to be filled with chunks of meat and bone and shells, not a formless glob of black ooze. Kayla quickly jotted down her notes on the subject, while peeking back into her scope to sketch what she saw. After a few minutes, she went back to the chromatograph to check on those results there. Elementally everything was ordinary, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, silicon. Nothing fancy. Kayla turned to Ik’Thrym. 

“Hey, you got any idea what this stuff is?” Kayla spun around to see the alien inspecting the hologram. He quickly perked up, looking over the goo in question. He drifted over to the plate under the scope, rotating himself to use the different eyes on his crown. He couldn’t quite figure out what was so familiar about it until he saw the liquid sample. It looked just like the darkness. He always knew the darkness was thick and oppressive, but to have it be a physical substance? And why was this beast eating it?

Ik’Thrym looked up to Kayla. “It's the darkness.” He stated flatly.

“Darkness?” Kayla was confused, and rightfully so, the word she repeated back to him, despite being essentially the same, had a vastly different meaning.  
“It was like a cloud, inky depths that lay just outside the temple I departed from before I found your metal fish. I had thought it was simply a lack of light but I think it may actually be this...goo. These crazed beasts came out of it.” He sat there, curling his tentacles in thought. 

Kayla also appeared to be thinking about it, but couldn’t quite put her finger on what she was thinking of. Perhaps it would be best to sleep on it. Just as she was thinking about it, she felt the telltale pang of hunger. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she spoke.

“Okay. Well, let's deal with this tomorrow. I’m starved.” She pulled herself away from the improvised desk, then looked at the mass of flesh before them. “I suppose we can get the bots to shove this thing back in its hole.”

* * *

The two of them headed back up to the habitation ring, legs wobbly from the transition back to gravity. Evidently, quite a bit of time had passed down in the makeshift lab, as the ship’s lights have changed from the dawn’s pink to the evenings dull orange. No wonder they were so hungry. The two of them strolled to the canteen and ordered some huge meals. After all, they did skip lunch. They earned it! There was no official rule about eating outside of the canteen, but it was still mostly frowned upon. Poking her head out from the canteen’s door to make sure no one was watching. The coast was clear, so they quickly walked to Kayla’s hatch so they could get comfy while they ate. Their nest was still set from the previous night, a dull orange haze cast over the room, a warm glow not felt in the rest of the ship. The two of them set down in their warm nest, Ik’Thrym trying his hardest to eat politely, a feat not easily accomplished given his animalistic anatomy. They merely sat there, lying against each other, silently meditating on the pale star in the distance, a much stranger sight for the alien, having come from a world with a sky of ice. They laid like that for some time, dozing in the warmth.

As they laid there, basking in the light of a distant sun, cuddling in the cozy cubby in the bowels of the ship. Kayla stirred. She pulled away from Ik’Thrym’s tentacled grasp, his arms uncoiling from hers, eager to maintain touch as long as possible. She sat up, a dull red silhouette glowing in the darkness, reaching down to peel off her shirt, tossing it to the side. Ik’Thrym was enraptured by the sight of this work of art in front of him. He’d seen something like this before, the day before when they went swimming. This time felt so much more important. She leaned back, pushing down her pants, tucking them in with her shirt in a pile to the side. Wordlessly, she crawled to the alien, straddling his mass of arms, then leaned down to give him a lingering kiss just below his eyes, lazily gazing into them. She leaned back, kneeling over him, grabbing one of his thick tentacles, sliding her hands over it as she pulled it out from between her legs, just barely teasing her clit, ushering a subdued gasp from her lips. Ik’Thrym allowed her to take the lead, letting her move his tentacle with no resistance. She held its weight in both hands, manipulating gently, before placing it squarely on her breast. Initially wary of its claw, she allowed it to graze her sensitive skin, sucking air through her teeth at the stinging sensation. She massaged his tentacle into herself, grabbing and tugging on the other between her legs, pulling it up to the other side of her chest, motioning him for to continue on that one as well. Tentacles on her chest, she sunk down into the mess of limbs between her legs, gently grinding herself on their wrinkled texture. Ik’Thrym recognized what she was trying to do, and started wriggling against Kayla. With plenty of arms to spare, Ik’Thrym started coiling them around her ankles, wrapping around her legs more and more as she quietly panted. Kayla’s arms fell from her chest and she leaned back, bracing herself with her hands behind her. However, which she didn’t account for, was Ik’Thrym’s waiting arms on the floor. They immediately reacted to her hands, wrapping them up in an instant. 

Ik’Thrym finally took command, pinning Kayla’s arms behind her, legs held down to the floor. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t move. She didn’t want to though. In her hands she took his tentacles, leveraging against them to push her pussy into the mess of tentacles beneath her. Ik’Thrym’s arms continued to coil their way up her legs, firmly grasping her as they snaked up her thighs. Her arms were brought together behind her back, coiled by a singular tentacle. The Second, now free, was able to slip around her waist, slinking up her stomach, between her breasts. Once past, it slowed, tapping and dragging on her throat, before it wrapped around the back of her neck, then passing itself under her jaw before prodding at her open mouth. Kayla was immediately receptive, sticking her tongue out to meet her partner’s tentacle, reaching to lick and wrangle it into her mouth. Once she put her lips to its firm, slimy tip, she began to suck on it like she had his tongue the night previous. Her tongue danced with his tentacle in her mouth as she began to moan into it, no longer afraid of making too much noise under the floor.

Ik’Thrym could feel her body heating up inside his coils. The thump of her heart. The skin to skin connection gave him everything he needed to know about her. She didn’t know it, but her alien flesh gave him a limited connection to her nervous system. He could feel what she felt, and she could feel what he felt. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to communicate with her mouth full. It was enough to communicate that she wanted more. His coiling arms continued up her thighs, reaching tantalizingly close to her pussy. He made sure to tease her, letting her build up her anticipation, just before he made contact, he tightened his arms, locking her in place. The tips of his tentacles made contact, gently pushing against her clit, rubbing around it, teasing it just enough. Another tentacle made contact, this time prodding further down. Slowly its tip pushed inside her. Gently. The tentacle in her mouth continued thrusting in, driving her down into him. 

She was truly a sight to behold. Suspended in the air, naked, covered in tendrils of flesh coiling around her, head thrown back in pleasure, pumping into her face and pussy, with another playing on her clit. The two on her chest wrapped around, groping and probing, squeezing and twisting. Still more tentacles wrapped around her back, helping to hold her in the air. In a moment of inspiration, Ik’Thrym guided one of his remaining tentacles to her rear, roping over the soft mounds, reveling in their form as they gave way under his arms. He could feel a response from Kayla as he did so, her body vibrating as she moaned, muffled by the flesh in her mouth. 

The tentacle rubbing her ass turned about, its tip back under her, licking along her underside, meeting yet another hole. As the tip slipped over, he felt Kayla leverage herself down, pushing the tentacle in her pussy deeper as she tried to get more and more inside of her. Ik’Thrym took the heavy-handed hint, coiling the tip back to her rear, placing it directly on her entrance. He could feel how much tighter it was than her other entrances, so he approached it much more gently, twisting the tip, using some of his natural slime to lubricate. Once past the entrance he started gently pulsing it into her, syncing up with the others. Kaylas moans amplified as she squeezed the flesh lying in her hands.

She was suspended like a lewd marionette, each of her holes stuffed with pulsing tentacles, ushering wave after wave of pleasure into her. As the tentacles under pushed her up, the tentacle in her mouth moved to push her back down. After such a long time being fucked everywhere, her breasts and nipples pinched and tweaked, Kayla began to break, her moans of pleasure changing to squeals and guttural groans. She pulled and pushed on Thrym’s tentacles, losing control against the incredible pleasure pouring into her. She tried to hold on as long as she could against the rising tide, but she was fighting a losing battle. As soon as it started, her moans turned to muffled screams and she shook and trembled while suspended by her alien mate. She pushed and pulled against them, her eyes coming near to tears. Ik’Thrym showed no mercy, continuing his onslaught on her clit and pussy, reveling in the sexual power he had over her. After a moment of blindingly hot pleasure, Kayla finally came down from her earth-shattering orgasm, panting heavily through her nose, her mouth a mess between her saliva and the alien’s dermal lubricant. 

Thrym released her arms and legs, slowly slipping his arms out of her orifices, but not without a teasing pulse through them on the way out. He then gently coiled all his arms around her, engulfing her in his warm and firm flesh. She rested her head against him, eyes closed, panting hard into his mass.

Ik’Thrym hadn’t yet had his fill, as evidenced by a growing hot mass emerging from his mantle, a pale, short and stocky tube, seemingly with a mind of its own, inching its way towards Kayla’s core. The alien didn’t seem to put much emphasis on it, allowing it to carry out its will towards his lover. As its tubular, alien end reached her, a short gasp escaped her lips as she squeezed tighter on his body, grinding her hips into it. She recognized is as a similar piece of anatomy to the cephalopods on earth and as such knew exactly what it was for. Soon it stiffened, remaining somewhat pliable while passing into her. Ik’Thrym’s tentacles once more began to coil around Kayla’s body, tightening firmly around her arms once more, before his member began pumping into her on its own, without the movement of its host. 

Kayla was still weak from the previous experience, so she just let the alien do what it wanted, coiling around her thighs and arms as his member steadily pushed into her deeper with each thrust. She was too cum-drunk to even articulate things she was feeling, instead opting to simple moan and cry out rather than speak. Ik’Thrym’s tentacles began quivering, his own pleasure taking hold. Soon, his thrusts became more and more greedy, pumping further and further into her, the lewd member reaching as far as the entrance of her womb, though the rubbery flesh of his penis had enough give to avoid too much pain, and pain which she did feel was instead converted into more pleasure. She felt his need driving into her and began to use the leverage of his tentacles grappling her to push even harder onto him. As the tip of his penis began to work its way past her innermost defenses, a large knot began to emerge from his body, pushing its way up his alien cock, grinding roughly on her clit, before audibly popping into her passage, where it stretched her nearly to the limit, abusing her G-spot and driving her nearly to the point of madness. Before she could even recover her breath, the fist-sized knot pushed further into her, and to her delight and dismay, a second knot emerged from his body, now abusing her clit once more while the first roughly rubbed its way further closer to her core. 

In a moment of lucidity, she quickly snatched one of his free tentacles, wrapping it around her neck and greedily sucking it down her throat before pleasure took hold once more and she started to scream in lust, thankful for the thick meat pushing into her mouth to muffle her. The first knot reached her womb, waiting at its entrance as if in some imaginary queue. Again, yet another knot emerged from his body, as the second moved further into her, her pleasure nearly blanking her mind as it abused her G-spot once more. It couldn’t push any further in before hitting the first knot, and the third hitting the second. She now had three thick globs pumping inside of her, Ik”thrym’s arms wrapping tightly around her, and she was absolutely blinded by a pleasurable rage and she used all of her effort to push him further and harder into him, ignoring the limits of her body, until the first knot slipped past her defenses and deposited itself directly into her womb, a hot jelly packet oozing its way into her, followed quickly by the second and third, their quick movements giving her a thrill of pleasure as she came hard, biting down on the lewd tentacle pumping down her throat, clenching and seizing under the immense pleasure, her movement restricted by the tight bondage of the alien all around her. His cock finished with its purpose, slowly pulled itself out of her, but not before gushing a hot jelly into her passage as it pulled out, quickly setting and hardening, keeping his prized cum sealed within her. As Ik’Thrym himself came down from his own heights of pleasure, he released his quarry back down onto their shared love nest. admiring her alien form. He couldn’t help but gently caress her luscious curves, from her neck, her breasts, thighs, and a new, pronounced bulge on her abdomen, clearly visible with her lying on her back, panting. It was quite visible from here, nearly reaching the height of her breasts. With that thought, he passed out from his carnal bliss, falling into a tangled mess over her nude form, gently enwreathing her as they drifted off to sleep. 

END OF PART ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowza. Sorry for taking so long folks! There's a chance there could be some continuity errors here, this was written over the course of a semester and a half or so. I definitely plan on writing more with this story, but until I have plenty of free time, I'll be sticking to one-shots (of various fandoms) Hope yall enjoyed!


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